Algebra 2 Unit 3

Our third unit in Algebra 2 is on Systems of Equations & Inequalities(yellow!). I really like systems and we started off the unit with a worksheet of system word problems. My students hadn't learned how to solve them or set them up or anything but I gave them 8 word problems and put them in pairs to try to figure them out. There was a lot of guess and check going on and some pairs did try to set up some equations. It was a good experience for them to see why we have systems before we even used them.

The next day we took our first set of notes (well technically started two sets). Our first set of notes were these two pages but we only filled in the foldable for graphing. I found this one on TPT here.

That same day we started the other set of notes we also took these ones. We did our notes on the right together and then I had my students do the 4 problems on the left on their own. We just finished the unit on graphing linear equations so they just needed to graph both lines and see the point of intersection. These are really just four problems I made using Kuta Software. You have to have a license to make your own but they have lots of free ones on their website here.

Instead of moving on to Elimination & Substitution like the book I went ahead and did systems of inequalities because its similar to solving by graphing. This foldable can be found on TPT here and I had it printed on white so we could use colored pencils to shade. I think it helps the students if you have them graph and shade each inequality in a different color so you can more easily see where they overlap.

We then moved to solving systems by substitution and elimination. We have block days at my school so we started off by filling in the substitution door on the foldable a few pages back and then the top of this foldable found here on Teaching Statistic's blog. We did some practice problems on white boards until they go the hang of it. My students love whiteboards, they show more work and aren't as worried about mistakes since with the swipe of a finger they're gone. Then we came back together to learn about elimination (my and most of their favorite). Filled in the other foldable and the bottom of the one on this page. Then their homework for the night was just on elimination. The next day we did the same word problem worksheet we did before we learned anything about systems so that now they could actually solve them with math. I also had them glue in the graphic organizer below. I used it in years past but couldn't find it anywhere in my files and had to purchase it here on TPT. I love how it organizes everything for them!

Our very last set of notes were the scary systems of three equations with three unknowns. Nothing glued in here, just some steps and two examples. They only had 4 homework problems since they take so long and the next day they were in groups working on task cards with  systems of 3 equations word problems. (I had an observation that day and my administrator really liked the graphic organizer that I had to go along with systems)

That's it for unit 3! After this the unit numbers get outta whack since the unit number matches the chapter number and our scope and sequence has us go all over the book. Only 9 more units to post about! :)