Teaching Tools

Subject Mathematics - Algebra

Grade Level 7th-8th grade

Learning Objective A.6 The student will

a) determine the slope of a line when given an
Content

equation of the line, the graph of the line, or

two points on the line;

Activity The objective of this lesson is to introduce the concept of finding

the slope of a line when given the equation of the line in slope-
intercept form, the graph of the line, or two points on the line.

“What do you think the graph of the equation will look like
when you think about the term linear equation?”

The teacher will (TTW) use the interactive Smart board to write
an equation in slope-intercept form, draw a graph of that line,
and write two points of the line on the board. The line is y = 2x +
4 and the two points are (4, 12) and ( -4, -4). The graph of the
line will look like the graph to the left. TTW ask the students
what the three formats have in common. Some students may
know, but most will likely not. TTW start by explaining the linear
equation and what each term means. The students should copy
these into your notebook to be used as the exit ticket.

“I would like to show you a presentation on the Smart board

that will show you this information in more detail. Please get out
your Chromebooks and go to the link that is shown here on the
Smart board:
https://exchange.smarttech.com/preview/59852701-013d-
47ba-a614-55dbf04b333d
Pedagogy

Please follow along on your device as we go through the lesson

and then complete the activity sheet that I will be handing out
shortly.
 Question #1 on the activity sheet will look
like the second slide of the lesson and you
will need to write whether the graph
shows a positive, negative, zero, or
undefined slope. To do this, you will need
to think about the positive and negative
slope information as we cover it as well as
the fractions 0/x and x/0 and remember
that anytime you have a 0 in the
denominator, it is an undefined fraction.
Then think about the slope of a line that is
shown to have a slope of X/0. This will be
a vertical line with an undefined slope. A
fraction of 0/X is equal to 0 and this is also true for the slope of a
line that shows 0/X. This is a slope of 0 and is represented by a
horizontal line. Can I please have 4 volunteers to come to the
board and write the type of slope for the lines on slide 2?

We can start with a graph and find the equation of the line by
identifying the y-intercept (b) and then find the slope (m) by
finding the different between two of the points on the line. So, if
we look at this graph, raise your hand if you would like to come
to the board and identify the y-intercept. Remember, this would
be written as the ordered pair like (0, 2). I would like another
student to come to the board, start at the y-intercept, and find
the next point on the line. The next point on the line is (1, 4). So,
now we can use the equation for slope and figure out the slope
or we can simply count the lines on the graph. From the y-
intercept of 4 rise up 2 lines to get to a y of 6 and then run to
the right 1 line to get to the x of 1. This would look like 2/1 as a
fraction with would be a slope of 2. So now we can plug the
slope and y-intercept into the equation y = mx + b and we will
have the equation y = 2x + 2. TTW ask six more students to come
to the board and go through slides 4 through 7 and go over the
different graphs as done for slide 3 above.

We will now look at a second way to find the slope of a line. The
format of this linear equation is called slope-intercept form. It is
in a format that can be directly graphed without making any
changes to the equation in the opposite was of how we used the
graph to find the equation. That is right, it means that it is the
equation of a line. The basic slope-intercept format is y = mx + b.
The coefficient of x is m and it stands for the slope of the line
and the small b stands for the y-intercept. This is why this
format is referred to as slope-intercept form. When you look at
the equation y = 4x + 6, what do you think the slope of the line
is? Correct, the slope is 4. Now what do you think the y-
intercept is? Correct, it is 6. What does it mean to say that the y-
intercept is 6? Yes, that means that there is a point of this line
on the y-axis at 6 points above the origin. Now when we think
about the slope of a line, we should think about it as a fraction.
How would you make 4 into a fraction? We can place any whole
number over 1 and turn it into a fraction without changing the
value of the number. This means if we divide 4 by 1, we still get
4. The slope of a line is said to be rise over run or the change in y
over the change in x. That looks like the equation to the left.
When the slope of the equation is a positive number then that
means the line rises from left to right because all graphs are
read from left to right. We know this because rise refers to the
distance between two points on the line from top to bottom or
bottom to top because it is based on the y-axis. Run is based on
the distance between the points from left to right because it is
based on the x-axis. So if we wanted to graph this line, we would
put our first point on the y-axis at positive 6 and then we would
move up 4 points and to the right 1 point and plot a second
point. In order to graph a line, we must plot two or more points
in a row. So, with the slope and plotting the second coordinate
point, we can now draw a line through the two points and see
the line. The teacher will continue and present slides 8, 9, and
the first problem on slide 10. Then 3 students will come to the
board and work through the second problem on slide 10 and
both problems on slide 11 while telling the class what they are
doing.

Now, let’s look at the two ordered pairs that are written on the
board. We can use the formula for finding the slope and plug in
the x and y of each ordered pair and find it very quickly. When
we are trying to figure out which ordered pair to use a y2 and
y1, we can pick either point to be the first and the other to be
the second. We will use point (5, 2) as point 1 and (-1, 4) as
point 2. Y2-y1 would be 4-2 which is 2. Then x2-x1 would be (-1)-
5 which is the same as -1 + -5 so the run is -6. When we look at
the fraction 2/-6 and simplify it by dividing both numbers by 2,
then we will find that the slope is (-1/3). The teacher will work
through the examples on slide 12 as guided practice. TTW then
Have the students answer the questions on slide 13 in their
math journals for further investigation. Once the students have
completed these problems, one student per problem will come
to the board and work through their problem and then pull the
tab to the right of their problem to compare the answer to what
they have written.

TTW then show the equation, graph, and points that were
written on the Smart board at the beginning of the class and
have the students find the slope and y-intercept of each format
 and then tell what they have in common (They are all formats of
the same line).

Technology SMART Exchange: “Slope” shared by Rachel E

https://exchange.smarttech.com/preview/59852701-013d-
Technology

47ba-a614-55dbf04b333d

Emailed 10.20.19