Sample Lesson Plan: Secondary

British Columbia Math Curriculum

Grade Level: Pre-Calculus 11 Date: April 2019

Big Idea(s):
 Quadratic relationships are prevalent in the world around us.

Curricular Competencies:
● Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions in many ways
● Think creatively and with curiosity and wonder when exploring problems
● Reflect on mathematical thinking
● Connect mathematical concepts with each other, with other areas, and with personal
interests

Content:
● Quadratic functions and equations - Transformations
● linear and quadratic inequalities

Constructivist Elements
Accessing Student Prior Knowledge and Experiences: Build upon the prior knowledge of
students.
Students use graphic organizer with learning objectives so students are dialed into the
learning. Teacher shows images of linear equations to review from Pre-Calculus 10 while
explaining the relationships and then shows images of parabolic equations and asks where
they might see this motion represented in real life? Equations are introduced for a basic y=x2
image and students are asked to map out the values to see how the line is formed in an
activation activity.

Provocation: Used to help students develop their own meanings of concepts.

Using Desmos, students will be incorporating technology to build their understanding of
parabolas to create images and extend their learning. This user friendly website is fantastic to
building the bridge into the heavy concepts of graphing. Progress on this can be monitored by
the teacher log in to ensure students are locked into the site. Students can collaborate at first
to build simpler images.

Metacognition: How will students reflect question and think about their own thinking?
Students will record in a math journal about the activities done each day and what they took
away from each. In this lesson, the journal will focus on how equations are graphed out and
the changes that occur with certain transformations.

Concepts: Plan for students to explore concepts in a variety of ways.

● Graphic organizer to sort out the learning objectives for the day
● Map out the equations and their corresponding values on pieces of poster paper
together or on whiteboards

Created by Kevin Low, Jen McAllister & Steve Scott.

 ● Explore concepts collaboratively through laptops using Desmos
● Create images individually using equations
● Individual data correlation into graphs and exploring function patterns
● Math Journals to conclude and summarize learning

Goals: How will you ensure that students understand what they are learning and why they are
learning it?
Students will have a graphic organizer detailing the learning objectives for the day. The
students will explain in their math journals at the end of the day how they were able to achieve
these and why they were successful. As the journals are part of the grade and teachers will be
reading them throughout the term, teachers can be warned of missed targets by students.

Collaboration, Cooperation and Dialogue: Build in social aspects.

● Students will work together in the activation stage of the lesson with post paper or on
white boards to map out equations
● Students will collaborate in creating images on the lap top through a trial and error
process learn how changes numbers on parabolas affect the lines
● Math journals will be shared with a partner at the end of the lesson to explore how
each student summarized their learning as each does so uniquely

Materials: Can the lesson include a hands-on element?

White boards, posterpaper, laptops, and worksheets

Synthesis: Provide opportunity for reflection, closure, sharing and discourse around where
learners will be going next.
The students will have ideas of where the learning goes next as the learning objectives in the
graphic organizer show this information. The students will write about how they think they
achieved each day’s learning objectives in their journals in order to reflect deeply.
Furthermore students will have a period of time to discuss their learnings with another student
in the time allotted and to jot down information from their partner if it was valuable.

Lesson Outline: Be as detailed or open-ended/flexible as you like.

Opening: Graphic Organizers
● Students start the day by reviewing the learning objectives as they will have to use
these in the synthesis phase of the lesson

Activation: Build on prior knowledge

● Teacher introduces images of linear equations from Pre-Calculus 10 and asks
students to map out the values of X and Y.

Created by Kevin Low, Jen McAllister & Steve Scott.

 ● Teacher then introduces equations for parabolic equations and asks students to map
out the values of X and Y on poster paper or the whiteboard in pairs

Student Activities/Explorations: Presenting concept in a variety of ways

● After activation, students are ready to explore using DESMOS with a partner to
produce simple images with parabolas. Ex, y=x2 -5<x<5 to create a line for a certain
segment
● After sometime or exploring students are given blank graph paper to see how they
would "sketch" something out first (showing work) and how they might break down the
images into smaller pieces rather than tackle the whole problem
● Students will then go back onto the Desmos activity and creatively create their own
images using parabolas, limits, and transformations

Close: Synthesis
● To finish off the lesson students will write in their kept math journals and bring out their
graphic organizers with the learning objectives. Students will describe how they
believe they achieved the objectives through which means to encourage reflection.
● Finally students will share with each other about their thinking in regards to the days
learning and jot down any unique ideas from their partners to keep in the journal.

Assessment Notes:
● Formative assessment will occur throughout as the teacher rotates around during the
activation activity and monitors the computer activities from a master account and can
speak to each student at given times. As the experience is collaborative and ideas are
shared throughout the teacher can give feedback instantly.
● Further formative feedback is given through the journals each day or week as it is read
through.

Created by Kevin Low, Jen McAllister & Steve Scott.