Identifying Graph Features of Functions in Interval Notation | A1 & A2

Looking for a comprehensive, editable resource to teach your students or child how to use interval notation to identify different intervals of a function (including: domain, range, increasing/decreasing, & positive/negative)? Want to include practice of identifying different features of functions such as the x- & y-intercepts and points given in function notation? This is a two-part set of scaffolded lesson notes, extra practice (homework) worksheet, and exit tickets to check understanding of the lesson is excellent in helping students achieve mastery of this objective.

Objective(s):

By the end of these lessons, students will be able to identify different features of functions and use interval notation to identify the domain, range, increasing interval(s), decreasing interval(s), positive interval(s), and negative interval(s).

Why Two Parts?

As I've learned from experience teaching interval notation can be overwhelming for students as it is very new and incredibly detail-oriented. Students need to really understand the "what's and why's": Why do you use parentheses instead of brackets? What makes a point included versus excluded? What is a hole? Why is it infinity for this graph, but not for this one? What is negative infinity? What is the difference between positive and increasing? Why are we just using the x-values and not the ordered pairs? After a total flop in my first attempt at teaching interval notation, I reflected on all the things that went awry and the main takeaway was that I was trying to throw too much at students at once. Therefore, I split the lesson into two parts, better scaffolded the lesson, added a lot more practice, supplemented student understanding by creating a few engaging partner activities for even more practice & to get students talking about math (see below if interested), and made sure to create two exit tickets so that I could use the data from part one to help me correct any student misunderstandings and emphasize whatever was needed in part two.

In Part One, students are introduced to interval notation for the first time. It focuses on identifying the following features: domain, range, x- & y-intercepts, and different points written in function notation.

Part Two expands upon students’ knowledge of interval notation, providing much needed practice, and adds identification of the following features: positive & negative intervals and increasing & decreasing intervals.

What's Included:

• Cover Page: includes link to editable google doc

• Notes - Part One: 5 pages + answer key

• Notes - Part Two: 5 pages + answer key

• Extra Practice - Part One: 2 pages + answer key

• Extra Practice - Part Two: 2 pages + answer key

• Exit Ticket - Part One: Two identical exit tickets are included (this is meant to be cut in half parts to save paper) + answer key

• Exit Ticket - Part Two: Two identical exit tickets are included (this is meant to be cut in half parts to save paper) + answer key

Editable Format:

• The lesson file includes both a printable pdf version and a link to make a digital copy of the original google doc. As a google doc, all text is editable. Graphs are NOT editable, but can be replaced with your own.

Random Tidbits:

• One of the things that I thought to do on each exit ticket that is super simple, but paid off huge dividends relationally with my students, is adding a sentence stem along with asking for their names. 1) Students almost never forgot to write their names on the exit ticket. 2) Daily, students would leave chatting with each other about what they wrote to answer the sentence stem. 3) It gave me something personal to chat with students about the next day as they entered class or I passed back exit tickets and helped me get to know them. 4) Even if students struggled on the exit ticket, I noticed that they never seemed to leave class feeling down or defeated because they could always at least answer the prompt about themselves.

Aligns with CCSS Algebra standards for Algebra 1 & 2. Thank you!