Lesson Plan Outline

Lindsay Pilong
A. Title of Lesson: Solving Rational Equations
B. Context of Lesson: Students will have just learned how to add, subtract, multiply,
and divide rational expressions. These were difficult operations to learn with rational
expressions but students have been practicing these a lot in the days leading up to this
lesson.
C. Learning Objectives and Assessment
Learning Objective

UKD
#

How will it be assessed?

Students will be able to solve rational

equations for the value of x (or another
variable)

D1

Exit Ticket

Students will know that when the

denominators are equal, the numerators are
equal as well.

K1

Exit Ticket

Students will know that the first step to

solving a rational equation is to find a
common denominator

K2

Observations during partner work & Exit

Ticket

Students will understand that when solving

rational equations, they are trying to find
all possible values the variable can have to
make the given equation true.

U1

Exit Ticket

D. Related 2009 Virginia Standards of Learning:

AII.4 The students will solve algebraically,
c. Equations containing rational algebraic expressions.
E. Materials Needed
I will need the notes, worksheets, and exit ticket printed out and copied
for the students.
F. Procedure
Time

Mathematical Tasks to be Used,

Anticipated Student

Teacher
Thoughts/Actions/Questions
5-10
min.
(10:05
)

As students walk in the

classroom I will have the
following 3 problems on the
board.
1. 2x-3=5
2. 3x+5= 17
3. 4x-2=5-3x
I will ask students to try to work
on them individually and then
get with a partner to check and
talk about it.
Then as a class, we will go over
the answers.

10
min.
(10:15
)

I will ask students to try to solve

x
1
5
the equation
+
=
by
2
3
6
themselves (2 minutes), then I
will ask students to get with a
partner to talk about it and try to
come up with an answer (2-3
minutes).
Then I will ask for an answer
from the class and will record all
student answers on the board
HOPEFULLY, at least one of the
answers is correct. I will then ask
the class who they think is right.
As a class, we will decide on the
right answer (they can just plug
numbers in and guess with this
problem).

Comments, Questions, Actions,

and Strategies
Students will most likely
remember these problems from
algebra 1 but I expect there will
be plenty who dont remember.
As students work, I hope they
can easily jog their own
memory as they try to
maneuver the equations to
solve for x.
As students work I hope they
will discuss inverse operations
and the ability to combine like
terms. If they struggle I will ask
questions like, what is the
inverse operation of addition?
etc.
I anticipate students will take
one look at this problem,
decide they dont know what to
do and ask for help. They could
ask questions like do we have
to find a common
denominator?, Is this like what
we did with adding
expressions?
As students work, I hope they
will be able to find that x=1,
whether that be by an actual
method or by just looking and
thinking about what x could be,
I think some students will be
able to find the right answer
despite not having yet been
taught how.
I expect some students will
multiply each side by 2 and 3

or just 6, I also anticipate some

students to find a common
denominator, and I also think
some students will try to
subtract from and then
multiply by 2. We can discuss
all these methods when we go
over it as a class.
10
min.
(10:25
)

Then, I will ask the class, what

did we do to get x=1??
Together, we will create a list of
steps to solve the problem.

Students should be able to tell

me what they did and by
writing down what different
students did, we will hopefully
see some misconceptions as
well as different correct
methods.
I am hoping the list of steps the
students come up with consists
of clearing the denominators in
some way shape or form and
then solving the numerators for
x.

5-8
min
(10:33
)

Then, Ill ask students to try to

solve the following with a
partner:
2x
5
8
+
=
9
9
9
after about 3-5 minutes, Ill ask
for what students got and again
we will discuss what we think the
correct answer is and why.

After having discussed the

previous problem, I hope
students can see that since the
denominator is the same in all
terms, they can just solve the
numerator! Many students will
probably multiply the entire
equation by 9, which will give
them the right answer and will
be good to show the students
who dont solve it that way.

This is where I will make sure to

stress that when denominators
are equal. numerators are
equal. and we will discuss why
that is true.
5-8
min
(10:41
)

Then, Ill ask students to try to

solve the following, again with
their partner:

Students should get the hang

of it at this point but will still be
struggling.

x +3
5
=
12
6
After about 3-5 minutes well
come back together as a class
and discuss what the students
did and what we believe the
answer is.

I will continue to point them to

think about the previous
problem and try to apply what
they did then to this problem.

Again, I will stress that when

denominators are equal
numerators are equal
10
min.
(10:51
)

Then I will show the students the

following problem:
3
8
=
x
x2
Here, I will talk about holes and
asymptotes. Ill ask the students
to graph y=8/x+2 and look at
x=2.
[Students are not learning about
this yet but my practicum
teacher would like them to see
what they are and hear the terms
so they are slightly familiar when
she teaches them about this
later]
Now I will ask students to solve
the problem and again we will
discuss how we got the answer.

Students will be a little lost

during the discussion of holes
and asymptotes but hopefully
seeing the error in the
calculator when we graph
y=8/x+2 will help them
remember that the
denominators cannot be zero.
I think students will be
confused on this problem
because there are variables in
the denominator instead of the
numerator. Some students will
be able to apply what weve
done to find a common
denominator but others will be
completely stuck and ask for
help.
To the students who are lost I
will help by asking them what
they did last time and what
they could do this time that is
similar.
During the discussion I hope
students will finally understand
why we can just solve the
numerators once we have
changed each term to have the
common denominator.

5-8
min.
(11:00
)

Then, students will solve the

following:
4
1
1
+
= 2
x +2
x2
x 4
And we will discuss how to solve
it together.
I will then hand out notes that I
have written (These will consist
of the problems we already did
together as a class with the work
shown and steps we took beside
them). This will serve as the
notes they would have gotten if I
had lectured this material like we
did with simplifying rational
expressions.

Students should have the hang

of these by now but I think the
fact that you must factor the
denominator on the right will
stump them in finding their
common denominator.
Some students will recognize
this as a difference of 2
squares but some will use a
complicated common
denominator and could get
lost.
As we go over the problem, I
hope students realize their
mistake and remember to
check for factoring in the
future.

15 min Students will be given a

(11:15 worksheet (practice worksheet
)
549) and will work on the
problems with a partner. The
problems I ask them to do will
depend on how much they are
understanding and how much
time we have left.

As students are given problems

to do on their own, they will
hopefully be able to work
together with the notes to find
the answer but I anticipate
students being confused at
first. I will walk around to
answer any questions they
have!

10
min.
(11:25
)

I hope that students will

understand these problems,
but I know that some will still
be struggling.
I anticipate that most students
will be able to do the first 2
problems, or at least do part of
them. I think that many
students will not know the
answers to the latter 2
questions, if that is the case, I
will spend some time talking
with the class about those
answers in the next class.

Exit Ticket:
1.
2.

x2
x4
=
x
x6
5 x+ 2
5 x
=
+
2
2x
x 4

2
x +2
3. Why are we able to
rewrite the equation
without the denominators
once we find a common
denominator?
4. When asked to solve
an equation like the
examples above, what are

you doing? In other words,

what does the answer to
a rational equation
represent?

G. Meeting The Needs of All Students:

As students are presented with problems they have never seen
before, they will work individually and then with a partner to try and
figure it out, then as a class we will discuss all the different methods
and approaches. This is a wonderful way to differentiate for students
because students are given the freedom to figure out the problem in
the way that makes the most sense to them. As we discuss other
students methods, students will see how others are thinking which
could help them quite a bit.
Students will be given a set of notes written by me once the
lesson portion of class is over. This will serve to help the students who
need explicit rules and steps to help them understand how to solve
these problems.
As students work in partners on the problems on the worksheet,
they are free to solve the problems in any way the wish, again
differentiating so that students can use the method that makes the
most sense to them.
The exit ticket will provide me with information on how in depth
the students understand how to solve equations so that I can
differentiate my instruction for the next day.

http://kalamitykat.com/2010/10/02/row-game-simplify-rational-expressions/
http://8ismyluckynumber.blogspot.com/2014/02/spoons-rational-expressionstyle.html