TCNJ Lesson Plan

Title: Graphing Proportional Relationships

Unit #3

Lesson #1

Day # 1

Aim/Focus Question
Aim/Focus Question: Write out the Big Content Objective from the Unit Plan
How can we graph proportional relationships and interpret the unit rate as the slope on a graph?

Assessment(s)

Learning Objectives (SWBAT) with Standards Codes

How will you assess the students understanding of the learning objectives? Include on-going formative assessments and any
summative assessment.
Daily Content Objectives:
1.
2.

Graph proportional relationships.

(CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.EE.B.5)
Interpret the unit rate as the slope of the graph.
(CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.EE.B.5)

1.
2.

Whiteboard activity/Exit Ticket/Homework

Whiteboard activity/Exit Ticket/Homework

1.

Whiteboard activity: creating the ratio table from the

given data
Whiteboard activity: creating the graph to model the table
in a pictorial representation
Whiteboard activity: when working on the worksheet in
pairs
Whiteboard activity: connecting the ratio table to the
graph

Big Skill Objectives:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Recall and activate prior knowledge

Model with Mathematics
(CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP4)
Group Work
Reason abstractly and quantitatively
( CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP2)

2.
3.
4.

Student Understandings/Misunderstandings/Misconceptions
What do you anticipate your students already know going into this lesson, misunderstanding, and having misconceptions of?
Students will already know how to create ratio tables, as theyve been doing so for the week and a half leading up to this unit. From
this information, they will be able to plot the data on a graph. Students may have trouble interpreting the unit rate as the slope of the
graph, since they havent graphed since 7th grade, and probably dont remember the concept of slope too well. They may also have
trouble interpreting a point on the graph as a proportion between the two things they are comparing. To combat this, the teacher will
not refer to the slope as the change in ys over the change in xs. Rather, the teacher will teach the class slope as the change in
whatever is being measured on the vertical axis over the change in whatever is being measured on the horizontal axis. (i.e. miles per
hour would be change in hours over the change in miles)

Beginning (Do Now/Opening/Hook)

Your beginning should engage students in the material for the day and be related to the objectives above. It is good to make your
beginning relevant to the students lives and to make an overt connection between the beginning and the objectives for the day.
Opening: The board will read: Create a ratio table based on the following problem: Jimmy works at GameStop, unloading boxes
when they get shipped in to his store. He knows that in each shipment, for every 3 Xboxes, there are 2 Play Stations.
Use your ratio table to solve the following problem.
Q: If there are 12 Xboxes in the shipment, how many PlayStations are there? Answer: 8 Play Stations
The teacher will have put a sample on the board for the ratio of 1 Xbox to 3 Play Stations, which the students will have to replicate
using the ratio in the problem.
The teacher will then go over the Do Now with the class, asking for volunteers to answer and picking Popsicle sticks with names on
them when necessary.
(7 min)

Transition
Explicitly connect the discussion
of the Opening to the days
Aim and then to the first
Activity.

Transition: Weve been doing these ratio tables for a couple of weeks now. We know that these
ratio tables represent proportional relationships between two things. For example, the amount
of money made per number of hours worked. Since you guys are all experts at creating these
ratio tables, lets move on to representing proportional relationships using something other
than tables. Were going to be representing proportional relationships by graphing instead. But
first, lets ease into this unit with a little activity (< 1 min)

Middle Context/Application (Mini Lesson, Activity, Guided Practice)

Be sure that your middle section includes a balance of instructional time and time for application.
Include transitions (in italics) when moving to another topic/activity.
Make sure that all activities have clear instructions for the students (written down and delivered) and that you model activities for
the students, when needed. It is useful to list/outline the instructions.
Instructions:
Word Splash: The teacher will have put up 4 posters on the walls of the classroom prior to students walking in. The posters are
labeled as follows: Proportion, Unit Rate, Variables, and Equations.
The students will be broken up into 4 groups (of about 5 students in each one). Each group will be assigned a poster to begin at.
They will have 3 min at the poster they are at to write down anything they know about the given vocabulary word before the teacher
will ask them to rotate to the next poster, where they will do the exact same thing, until every group has visited every poster.
The things that students write may include: a sentence-long definition, example, bullet point, etc.
Once every student has visited every poster, the teacher will bring the posters to the front of the class and read off what everyone
wrote to give the class an idea of where their fellow students are at, in terms of understanding what these terms mean and what is
associated with them. The teacher will also commend the students on their work with the posters.
(12 min)
The teacher will then tell the class that they will add to these posters as they get further and further into the unit. At this point the
teacher will introduce the topics that they are going to cover in the following 9 days, including:

Graphing proportional relationships

Comparing proportional relationships with different representations
Using similar triangle to find slope
Deriving the equation of a line from a graph
Simplifying expressions
Solving one-variable linear equations

(3 min)
Pre-test: The teacher will then administer a pre-test which assesses students prior knowledge with respect to graphing proportional
relationships, simplifying expressions, and solving one-variable equations, as these are the three most important objectives in the
unit. The results from this pre-test will let the teacher know if the students already know how to do all of these things or if they have
never seen them before. The teacher can then adjust the unit accordingly.
(7 min)
Now that weve been introduced to the kind of vocabulary we will see in this unit, lets get started by talking about graphing. By a
show of hands, who here has graphed in the past? Everyones hand should shoot up because I know for a fact that you guys
graphed in both 6th and 7th grade. (Teacher draws a the first quadrant of the coordinate plane on the board) Who can tell me what we
call the horizontal axis? The vertical axis?
Answer: x-axis, y-axis
(< 1 min)
Whiteboard Activity: The teacher will distribute whiteboards containing the Goldfish problem on one side and the Ice Cream
problem on the other.
The class will be asked to make sure that they have Goldfish problem in front of them.
The students will assist the teacher in filling in the empty ratio table that models the following problem:
Kevion finds that 2 goldfish can live in 4 gallons of water. Create a ratio table for 3, 4, 5, 8, and 10 goldfish.

Students will be given goldfish crackers to model the problem.

o In their ratio table, they will put down however many goldfish they are trying to find the gallons of water for.
o Example: If they are trying to find the number of gallons for 5 goldfish, they will physically put 5 goldfish in the box
where they would normally put the number 5.
o ***They will be asked not to eat any until they have filled out the ratio table.
The teacher will create a graph on the board with goldfish on the x-axis and gallons of water on the y-axis.
o Students will help the teacher to create a graph to model the data by plotting the points in the ratio table.
o (Q1)
o (Q2)
o (Q4)
o (Q3)
o (Q5)
At this point in the lesson, weve finished with the Goldfish problem, so the students can eat their goldfish.

Now that weve done one problem together, I want to see if you can do the same thing without my help. But dont worry; Im going
to partner you guys up so that you can bounce ideas off of each other while you work. (<1 min)
Students will be asked to flip over their whiteboards to the second worksheet containing the ice cream problem. This problem reads:
Josh loves to eat ice cream. He loves it so much that he eats 4 bowls of ice cream each day! Thats a lot of ice cream!
Create a ratio table that shows how much ice cream Josh eats on 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 16th day. Use this table to graph the
data and find the slope.
What is the unit rate? Where do we see this in our graph?
Students will work on this problem with their partner for 10 minutes. Both students must complete their own worksheets so that
they can reference them later.
Following this, the teacher will ask for a group to volunteer to plot their graph on the coordinate plane that the teacher has already
drawn on the board. (3 min)
Another group will then be selected to interpret the slope as the unit rate and explain how the two relate. Then, they will be asked
how they got the answer that they did. (2 min)

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Knowledge Questions:

What questions will I ask

during the activity/ lesson?

(Q1) How do you find the unit rate given a ratio table? (divide both numbers in one row of the
ratio table by whatever number is in the left columnso that one of the numbers will be 1)

Include anticipated student

answers in parentheses.

(Q2) What is the unit rate of this ratio table? (1:2)

Above, write where in the

instructions the question will
go, using parentheses (ex. Q1).

Application Questions:
(Q3) In general, how do you think we would find the unit rate from a graph? (Its the slope)

Critical Thinking Questions:

(Q4) How does this relate to our graph? Do we see 1:2 anywhere on our graph? (Every time we
go up 1 fish, we go up 2 gallons as well)
(Q5) Is the unit rate the same even when looking at two different points on the graph? (yes)

Differentiation
Struggling

Baseline

Accelerated

If some students are struggling with filling

out the worksheet, they will be paired with
another group who looks like they get the
idea for additional help.

These students perform the activity as

directed.

Pairs of students who finish early:

-

May be asked to pair with a struggling

group to help them along and explain
the concepts behind what they are all

Transition
Connect the Application with
the Conclusion.

learning.
Will be asked to predict how the graph
would change if Josh ate 7 bowls of ice
cream each day. How would the unit
rate change?

Transition: Good job guys! Weve now done a couple problems together as a class modeling
proportional relationships by graphing. Lets finally bring together everything weve learned
today and talk about what comes next. (<1 min)

End /Conclusion of the Lesson

End each lesson together as a class to sum up the material for the day and bring the class back to the Learning Objectives and
Aim for the day.
A student will be picked via Popsicle stick to share with the rest of the class a summary of what the lesson was all about. If
necessary, the teacher will pick another student to add or clarify.
If the students responses were missing formal language, the teacher will re-voice what the students said in a way to familiarize the
class with more mathematical language. (2 min)
The class will return to the Do Now activity dealing with the Jimmy and the shipments of Xboxes and Playstations. The teacher will
draw a coordinate plane on the board and ask the students to help plot the points and find the unit rate from the graph. (5min)
Exit ticket: Students will be given an exit ticket containing an already-filled-out table that needs the data to be plotted. They will
also be asked to find the unit rate from their graph.

For every 3 times Bryon eats in class, Kevion eats 4 times. Use the ratio table below to plot points on the graph and
connect them with a line. What is the unit rate?
o Unit rate = 1:1.3

Students will then share their answers with the class.

(5 min)
The teacher will do a thumbs up/thumbs down check for understanding to see how many people think they understand how to do a
problem like this one.
(< 1 min)
The teacher will then explain how to do the homework assignment below before passing it out.
(1 min)

Homework
What is the students homework to help them apply the knowledge they have learned from the days lesson?
Students will be given a blank worksheet. They must create their own problem for modeling a proportion between any two items.
From this problem, they will fill in the empty ratio table and graph it on the given coordinate plane. They are asked to find the slope
of the line theyve created as well.

Materials
List any materials you need for the lesson.

Whiteboards
Expo markers
Popsicle sticks with student names on them
4 Poster boards
Poster markers
HW worksheet

***Add handouts/resources below***