Today, I'll start the math class by asking the big question, "What is a relationship?"
I'm prompted to ask this question because yesterday when students completed a short math vocabulary exercise, they were stumped with that word.
After they offer their definitions of relationship? I'll ask, What is a relationship look like in math?
I'll listen carefully to what they say, and then I'll tell them that graphing ordered pairs or coordinates on a coordinate grid is one way to show mathematical relationships. After that we'll engage in a number of examples of story problems that prompt us to graph the relationships between one event and another. We'll then study the graphs and discuss the relationships we see with the following questions:
- Does the graph demonstrate a predictable or unpredictable relationship?
- Does the graph show a relationship that results in an increase, decrease, or little change at all?
- How can we define that relationship using an algebraic expression or equation?
- Why might graphing a relationship make that relationship easier to understand, describe, or decide upon next steps?
The concept of relationship in math is very important. Today I want to tease out students' current understanding and grow that understanding more via the use of coordinate grids. What other language, questions, and efforts would you add to this lesson. I look forward to your ideas.
