Friday Fave for June 1

Practice.

Everybody has thoughts on practice. Should it be assigned for homework or flipped and done during math class? How much is necessary? Is there such a thing as too much? Concentrated or interleaved?

So many questions, and the Friday Fave does not pretend to have the final word on matters of practice.

But the Fave DOES have resources.

Consider the line; a mathematical object useful for everything from drawing pictures to modeling our everyday world. Lines are worth getting to know in an intimate way. Practice—in some form and at some time—is going to be a part of building your mind’s relationship with lines.

This is where Match My Line comes in. We start simply—you’re only paying attention to the slope as you write an equation that sends a line through two points.

But soon you’re dealing with slopes and y-intercepts, and using whatever form of an equation for a line is useful to you—a form that may well change in response to the nature of each challenge.

You’re sketching. You’re settling disputes. You’re reflecting on the relationship between the form of a challenge and the form of the equation you’d like to use to solve it. All of this makes for meaningful practice with engaging technology. And it’s what makes Match My Line this week’s Friday Fave.

While you’re thinking about practice and matching, take a look at these other matching activities.

Match My Parabola

Match My Picture

Card Sort: Derivative Match