Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol (TTLP) Planning Template 1

Task
What is the main activity that students will be working on in this lesson?
The students will works in group to draw a line that they think will best
represent a set of data. From this line, they will determine the equation of
the line of best fit and use it to predict the number of calories a sandwich
has based on its fat content. The students may take several approaches to
drawing their line and creating an equation. The students will also answer
follow-up questions that may help them think more deeply about the
question and the relationship between the variables.

Instructional SupportTools, Resources, Materials

Prior Knowledge
What prior knowledge and experience will students draw on in their work on
this task?
Prior to the task, the students will need to know how to draw graphs, label
axes and title graphs, plot points, and draw lines. They will also need to
know information such as what a slope is, what a y-intercept is, and how
to find the equation of a line using a variety of methods. The students
should not just be able to use formulas, but they should be able to
understand the meaning behind a rate and a y-intercept.

Task Launch
How will you introduce and set up the task to ensure that students
understand the task and can begin productive work, without diminishing the
cognitive demand of the task?
To launch the task, I will remind students of definitions they should know
such as slope, y-intercept, and mathematical relationships. I will also
provide the formulas for a line in point-slope form, slope-intercept form,
and the formula for slope. They should already know these anyway, so I
will just have them up on the board as a reminder. I will set up the task by
providing the scenario of a Subway sandwich that we know the fat content
of, but we do not know the number of calories.

Anticipated Solutions
What are the various ways that students might complete the activity?

Instructional SupportTeacher
What questions might you ask students that will support their exploration of
the activity and bridge between what they did and what you want them to
learn?

Be sure to include incorrect, correct, and incomplete

solutions/approaches/explanations
Anticipated solutions and instructional support are detailed on my
monitoring tool.

What tools or resources will be made available to give students entry to, and help them
reason through, the activity?

The students are provided with a piece of spaghetti so that they may
manipulate the line of best fit before they choose their line, they are given
a copy of the exploration to make notes and answer questions, each group
is given one piece of graph paper to create their graph, they are given a
ruler as a straight edge to use to create their graph, and I use visuals such
as an empty Subway sandwich bag to explain the scenario and a bag of
pretzels (with zero fat and 100 calories) to explain the y-intercept during
the discussion.

These questions should assess what a student currently knows and advance
her/him towards the goals of the lesson. Be sure to consider questions that
you will ask students who cant get started as well as students who finish
quickly.

Use the monitoring tool to provide the details related to Anticipated Solutions and Instructional Support

Based on Smith, Bill, and Hughes (2008)

Modified version of the template that was developed and used by Dr. Margaret Smith in her Teaching and Learning in Secondary Mathematics
course at the University of Pittsburgh.

Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol (TTLP) Planning Template 1

Sharing and Discussing the Task
Selecting and Sequencing
Which solutions do you want to have shared during the lesson?
In what order? Why?
During the lesson, I want one of each anticipated solution to share except
the group that placed the line nowhere near the plotted points because
this is an incorrect solution and cannot be called a line of best fit. I want to
start with the group that placed the line along as many points as possible,
but not necessarily in the middle. I want to use this group to demonstrate
that although the line may be touching several of the points in the graph,
it is not a perfect representation of all points on the graph. I will also point
out that although this may be a trend line, it is not the best representation
of the data. I will follow this group with a group that went through the
origin. This group may have reasoned that the line should go through the
origin because zero fat content should also mean zero calories. Although
this group may be going along an understandable line of mathematical
reasoning, I will demonstrate to them that it is possible to have zero fat,
but still have calories using a bag of pretzels. Similarly, although this is a
trend line, it does not best represent the set of data. Finally, I will have a
group that placed the line as close as possible to all the points. I will use
this group to demonstrate that although the line may not be touching as
many points as the first group, it is more representative of the set of data
because it like an average. While each group is presenting, I will also have
them demonstrate how they found their line of best fit and what method
they used (such as point-slope form, slope-intercept form, or counting rise
and run and identifying the y-intercept). As groups are presenting, I will
display the groups line of best fit. After each group is finished presenting,
I will display a graph that shows each of the lines of best fit in the
classroom.

Connecting Responses
What specific questions will you ask so that students
- make sense of the scientific/mathematical ideas that you want them to
learn
What is the purpose of the line of best fit?
What methods can we use to find the equation of the line of best fit?
What is the relationship between fat and calories?
What does the slope in your equation represent?
Is there a positive or negative correlation?
What would a negative correlation look like?
How can we use our lines of best fit to predict?
Will our predictions always be correct?
Instead of using our equations to predict, could we just use a proportion?
Why can we not always use a proportion?
When can we use a proportion?
Is there a constant rate of change between each point in the set of data?
Is there a best line of best fit?
What tools would we have to use to find it?
- make connections among the different strategies/solutions that are
presented
What does the y-intercept represent in your equations?
Why should we place the line as close as possible to all points?
When would it be appropriate to have a line of best fit that goes through
the origin?
What are the similarities and differences between each of these
approaches?
Is there only one possible line of fit?
What are your predictions for the calories of a sandwich with 50 grams of
fat?
Why do all of us not have the same prediction?

Based on Smith, Bill, and Hughes (2008)

Modified version of the template that was developed and used by Dr. Margaret Smith in her Teaching and Learning in Secondary Mathematics
course at the University of Pittsburgh.