Guided Inquiry Lesson Plan

Unit/Class/Grade:
Intro to Exponential Functions (Ch 8)/ Integrated 1/ 9th grade
Standard(s):

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.LE.A.1
Distinguish between situations that can be modeled with linear functions and with exponential
functions.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSF.LE.A.2
Construct linear and exponential functions, including arithmetic and geometric sequences, given
a graph, a description of a relationship, or two input-output pairs (include reading these from a
table).

Language Function: Discuss their approach and explain their reasoning.

Language Demands: Discuss and explain their approach and reasoning for their answer.
Language Supports: Sentence Frames and think-pair-share.

Materials Needed:
Teacher: 3 act task slides and lesson plan
Students: Access to Jamboard
Objective(s):
Students will be able to use ratio concepts and
reasoning to determine how much money was
spent to fill the cars gas tank. They will then
create an equation that models the situation.
Possible Challenges /Misconceptions:
- Students might not unmute which could
make it hard for them to work together by
only communicating through the chat
- Students might not know which numbers to
divide

Prerequisite Knowledge: unit rate, division, arithmetic and geometric sequences

Formative Assessment: I will be monitoring their work and response that each team is writing on
their own page of the google jamboard. I will give students feedback when I enter their breakout
room and inform them what they are doing good and what they might think of doing next.
Act 1: Teacher Actions Student Actions
- Show a video of a gas tank being - Students watch the video
filled up - Students think about
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G questions and wonders
hy5V_mLnGrNtlX_VmY84Xz1br they have
DvVBj6/view?usp=sharing - Student will share their
- Teacher asks the student, “How guesses for the given
 much money do you think was question
spent to fill the tank?

Act 2: - Teacher will ask, “What - Students will ask for

information do we need? What
information would be useful to
know?”
- Teacher will provide students with
the additional information they
ask for
- The teacher will then create
breakout rooms that have students
work in groups of 4
- The teacher will then visit each
breakout room
Act 3 : - The teacher ends the breakout
rooms and brings the class back
- The teacher then has each team
share their strategies.
- The teacher shows the students the
last video that reveals the answer
to the question in act 1
information.
- Students will work with
their assigned teams to
answer the question.
- Student will then share the
answer they decided as a
group
- One random student from
each group shares their
strategy and answer to the
class.
- The students watch the last
video to see how well their
strategy worked

Reflection
1. What went well during the lesson?
The first part of the lesson went really well. During Act 1 I had a lot of participation through the
chat. I noticed that students who I usually do not hear from showed they were engaged through
the chat. I also noticed that students were communicating with each other by stating, “I agree
with Sarah” or “I think it might be close to what Kate guessed”.
2. What challenges did you anticipate going into this lesson? How did you prepare for these
challenges?
I anticipated that students would not unmute while they were in breakout rooms. In order to
prepare for this I came up with different questions I could ask them to start the discussion such as
“What can we do with the information that we know?” and “Would we need any additional
information or can we find any additional information”. I also expected students to not know
which numbers they might choose to divide and the units to use. To address this I had a problem
I could go over with them that demonstrated how they could cancel out certain units which
would help them identify which number they would need to divided.
3. Which students stood out during this lesson? Why?
The student that stood out to me during this lesson was Sarah. Sarah usually is quiet but has
recently been participating more through the chat and at times unmutes. Sarah stood out the most
during this lesson because she was the first to share her guesses through the chat and kept on
being engaged throughout the lesson. In other words, she was the first to offer a guess during act
one, asked questions during act two and volunteered to share what her group discussed during act
three.
4. What surprised you about teaching this lesson?
One thing that surprised me about this lesson was the amount of participation I receives. The
students were very engaged during the lesson. When I entered the breakout rooms, I noticed that
students were communicating with each other and thinking of different ways they could
approach the problem. I have not done many three-act tasks since the first time I did one student
were not really participating but it seems the students really enjoy them, and I plan to have them
as intro lesson for new units.
5. Based on your assessment of the lesson and your students’ learning, what is important
for you to do tomorrow? Your response should link directly to examples from your
students’ work.
What is important for me to do during the next class is review arithmetic and geometric
sequences. When the students were creating the equation that modeled the given situation, I
noticed that students were confusing arithmetic and geometric equations. This will also serve as
a quick review of ch 5 which connects with the new unit that we will be starting on exponential
functions. I plan to go over the general arithmetic and geometric equations and then transition to
the exponential equation and explain the relation between the 3 different equations.