I ran across this picture I took last school year of a practice routine I tried to implement in my Algebra 1 classes. Last year, I made it my goal to finish linear equations before Christmas Break. After Christmas Break, students came back and acted like they remembered nothing about linear equations. It was not a pretty sight. At this point, we had still not covered graphing and solving systems of equations. I knew they still knew how to graph linear equations; they were just out of practice. So, I decided I would force them to get back in practice by introducing the "Linear Equation of the Day."
Each day, after bellwork, I would project something like this on the board:
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Linear Equation of the Day |
Students would have 2-3 minutes to fill out as much information as possible. I would call for volunteers who would come up to the board and fill in one piece of information. As each blank was filled in, students would critique the work.
This year, I started teaching linear equations right after Christmas break, and that seemed to work much better. We covered exponent rules, factoring, polynomials, and all that fun stuff before Christmas break instead of trying to fit it in at the end of the year.