Daily Lesson Plan

Teacher: Mr. Edwards

Course: Pre-AP Algebra 3-4

Date: 1/5/2015

Period(s): 1, 4

Topic/Concept being taught: Exponential Functions,

Arizona State Standards: HS.F-LE.A.2, HS.A-CED.A.2

specifically interest rate problems

Specific Objectives (students will be able to . . .) Use exponents to find the return on an investment given an
initial amount, time period, and interest rate.

Materials needed: SMART Board, calculators, online

Common Core Mathematical Practices used in this lesson:

calculator modulator

2.

Reason abstractly and quantitatively

4.

Model with mathematics

5.

Use appropriate tools strategically

7.

Look for and make use of structure

8.

Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

Instructional strategies: (lecture, demonstration, discussion,

partners, cooperative groups, hands-on, manipulatives, etc.)
Teacher-guided problem solving, group work, technology
(using calculators), differentiated instruction by having followup questions for students who finish early, upside-down
teaching (you-we-I)

Warm-up activity (bell work) (10 minutes): Students will do the following as they walk in the room
1. Compute
a. 5% of $1000
b. 3.7% of $800
2. Mr. Edwards wants to buy a basketball which costs $29.99 but has been marked down by 10%. If sales tax in
Arizona is 5.6%, how much does he pay for the ball?
The first problem should be okay for students to do, I will encourage them to use a calculator for the second part. I
anticipate the second problem taking some extra time, so if students seem to be struggling on it, I will tell them to chat
with their partners in a Think-Pair-Share. I will then call on a random group to share their answer and use a thumbs up
thumbs down method to see if the class agrees. If there is still disagreement, I will ask a group with the correct answer to
explain their reasoning at the board.

Activity (time)
Group work (20 min)

What Teacher Does

Group students in trios, and present the
problem to them:
Suppose you have $1000 in a savings
account. The interest rate on your
account is 0.1% per year. How much
money will you have after
(a) 1 year?
(b) 10 years?

What Student Does

Students will work in groups of 3 to
solve the problem presented. They will
be allowed to use their calculators to
help them out.

There might be misunderstanding if

students are not familiar with the words,
so I will explain the problem to the
students. After this, I will wander around
and guide students to use exponents to
solve the problem. When a group has
solved the problem, I will tell the group
that the 0.1% is usually not added at the
end of the year, but is actually broken up
each month and ask them to solve the
same problem following this model. If a
group finished this and other groups are
not done yet, I will ask that group to
work on a similar problem.
Think-Pair-Share (10 min)

I will ask the students if they can come

up with a general formula for computing
the return on an investment. I will
wander around the room and see what
students are thinking.

Group work (10 min)

I will explain what inflation is to the

class. Then I will ask students to figure
out how much money they actually have
after 10 years (from the investment
problem) based on the value of a dollar
today. If groups finish early, I will ask
them to determine how much I should
invest originally if I want to have $1000
in the end (at the value of the dollar
today).
I will present students with the final
example and ask them to find the amount
of money they would have at an interest

Group work (5 min or the rest of the

lesson, the other examples might go
quicker than expected, so this one is

Students will think on their own for 1

minute, before I ask them to talk to their
group to compare thoughts. I will ask a
random group what their answer is and
then check to see if there are other
answers. We will discuss which one is
correct.
Students will work in groups to figure
out what the amount they obtained in the
first example is worth at todays value.

Students will work in groups to solve the

problem.

designed to take at least the rest of the

period)

rate of 10%. They will also have to

account for inflation. I will walk around
and check to see how students are doing.

Closure: Students will turn in the work they did on the inflation
problem.

Assignment: Do the following

1. Finish the stock market problem.
2. Assuming you will retire at age 65, how much
money will you have in your stock market fund if
you deposited $1,000 today? Be sure to account for
inflation.

Method of Assessment for this lesson:

Formative Assessment: the answers they get on their bellwork,
observations while students are working on problems, students
thoughts on the think-pair-share, thumbs up or thumbs down to
agree with their peers
Summative Assessment: quiz on the first half of the chapter will
have a question on investment, the chapter test will also have a
question on it

Teacher evaluation of lesson: (completed after lesson)

Appendix
This lesson is the first one back after winter break. It is the opening to the section on
exponentials and logarithms. The intention is to help students build some intuition towards
exponential functions while also helping them understand a pretty typical type of problem in the
section. Ive found that students have trouble remembering the investment equation, so this
should help them know how to derive it rather than strictly memorizing it. Following this lesson,
we will consider exponential functions in general, graph them, and solve more problems using
them. Additionally, students will learn about logarithms, which will further expand the types of
problems they can do. While designing the lesson, I discussed it with my cooperating teacher. I
first wanted his input on the bellwork, because I wasnt sure if students would be able to compute
percentages. I also asked him whether or not he felt this lesson removed enough of the lecture
aspect and had enough opportunities for students to work on problems. He thought that I met
these criteria, but he brought up the fact that students might struggle to come up with the
equation. In the end, I decided to leave it as is, while keeping in mind that students might need a
significant amount of guidance. I also turned to the internet in order to find some information
about interest and inflation rates. I was able to get the information by typing questions into
Google.
In this lesson itself, students are coming up with ways to compute their money based on
interest rates and inflation rates using exponentials. By doing this, students are demonstrating the
five mathematical practices listed above. In order to come up with this equation, they hit practices
2, 7, and 8. Additionally, they are modeling with mathematics and they have to use appropriate
tools strategically. The Common Core Standards are to create equations and also to construct
exponential functions, which the students do when coming up with an equation for the
investment.

In order to address the needs of all students, I am employing several strategies. First, I am
allowing the use of calculators during the bellwork, because I know that students may struggle
with the decimals. It would be difficult to solve the problems later in the lesson without them
anyways, so this way they already get their calculators out. Additionally, I am allowing students
to work in groups, which helps to differentiate instruction and gives students a chance to work
together. If necessary, I can purposefully group the students to aid in language barriers or other
special needs. In order to meet the needs of students who might move a bit quicker, I have
prepared several questions to ask them, which go further into the content. For example, for the
second bellwork problem, the solution ends up being the cost of the ball multiplied by 0.9
followed by a multiplication of 1.056 to account for sales tax. I would ask students who finish if
we could apply the sales tax first and then the discount. Another question would be to ask
students what would happen if the ball was $5 off and whether they would want the discount to be
applied before the tax or after. For the investment problem, I would tell students who have
completed it that banks usually apply interest after each month. Then tell them to come up with a
formula for that and see if it changes the amount you have at the end. If students are able to
quickly find that, I could go further and ask them to do try it if a bank were to do this every day.
In order to differentiate instruction, I could also ask these students to work with other groups to
talk about what they came up with.