Since the weather did not cooperate with me this week and completely messed up my plans to test Friday I was scrambling to come up with an activity for my Honors Advanced Algebra classes that wasn't a waste of a day, but would give 7th pd the opportunity to get caught back up with my other two classes (did I mention that we completely missed 7th pd Monday due to the tornado warning and that my entire 7th pd class was out the day before Spring Break due to a field trip). Scavenger hunt to the rescue. What teenager doesn't love the opportunity to wander the hallway for 45 minutes? On my hallway we love hallway work. At least once a week you will find someone with their class in the hallway doing some kind of activity. If you haven't tried it, you should. It gives the kids a chance to get up and moving without tripping over desks and bookbags (in a classroom the size of mine that is definitely a hazard). I can stand in the middle of the hall and see both directions and keep an eye on my kids, and (here's the awesome thing) THE KIDS WORK. There is definitely something to be said for getting the kids out of their desks and getting them moving. In my opinion they spend way too much of their day sitting passively rather than engaging actively. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-lecture. I have been know to lecture for a full class period when the need arises, and sometimes it does. I'm just saying that sitting in a desk from 7:45 to 2:45 5 days a week is a bit ridiculous.
Off my soapbox and back to the scavenger hunt. Advanced Algebra is in the middle of our Exponential & Logarithmic Functions unit, and we have been working with graphing and comparing functions and their characteristics. I put together a 13 question scavenger hunt with multiple choice questions related to these topics. Some of the questions are easier than others, but the goal was to make them think about the graphs and characteristics without completely sketching the graph. Here are a few sample questions.
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| Question 1 - Finding the domain of a logarithmic function |
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| Question 7 - Determining the inverse of a logarithmic function |
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| Question 9 - Identifying the correct graph of a logarithmic function |
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| Question 11 - Analyzing and comparing a function and a transformation
I have my kids take a piece of notebook paper with them to write down the question number, answer, and any work they need to show. If they make a mistake they quickly get stuck in a loop and wind up back at a question they've already done. I take a copy of the answer key out with me so I can quickly check their work, identify where they made their mistake, and send them back to where they went wrong. The discussions my kids have while working through this kind of activity are great to hear. They will argue their reasoning with their classmates, justifying their answers and finding flaws in each other's logic. It's also not unusual to hear "Ms. M - tell them I'm right because....". I find activities like this are very effective in making students really think about what the question is asking. Unlike a multiple choice practice worksheet where they will just circle an answer and hope it's right, in an activity like this they know if they answer wrong it is going to mess them up so they put a lot more thought into what they are doing.
The set-up is not too difficult either. Once you have the questions written start with #1 and assign the correct answer the question you want them to go to next. After each correct answer has a question number assigned to it, then I go through and randomly assign another question number to each of the incorrect answers. I highly recommend that you write down the correct question sequence along with the correct answers as you are doing this. It will save you a LOT of time later.
If you are interested in this activity, or any of my others, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
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