Graphing Rational Functions Reference Sheet



When students feel confident they enjoy school. When they enjoy school, they do better. And when they do better, they make a choice to go on to more school. There's a snowball effect that starts with confidence and ends with that struggling student going on to get her PhD. 

To me, confidence is everything, and the importance of memorization is diminishing more and more every day. Even with access to math cheat sheets, my students still need to put in work to understand our difficult Algebra 2 topics. Cheat sheets will never replace this. 

Cheat sheets offer a little boost of confidence that pushes the student to take a risk. Even when the sheet never even leaves a student's binder, just knowing it's there "just in case" is enough.
The reference sheet above is for graphing rational functions. The process is a long one, so this cheat sheet offers reminders for each of the steps. 


Simplifying rational expressions flowchart front


Before we started graphing, our students were having trouble simplifying rational expressions. After our first quiz it was obvious that I needed to give them more support. So I gave them this simplifying rational expressions flowchart to help explain the steps to take for each problem type.




I love examples as references because being able to follow an example and apply it to a new problem is a skill that can be developed and strengthened in students. This skill comes in handy in college math classes!


Simplifying Rational Expressions Activity


This simplifying rational expressions activity is a way to practice simplifying rational expressions. Students have to figure out if they are being asked to add, multiply or divide their rational expressions based on what information is missing.

Simplifying Rational Expressions Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity


My friend Kara from Learning Made Radical and I have been collaborating on a set of partner scavenger hunt activities. This one is for simplifying rational expressions


Simplifying Rational Expressions Partner Scavenger Hunt Activity


In these partner scavenger hunts, problems are the same but answers match, encouraging collaboration. 


rational functions parent graph from an Algebra 2 word wall


In addition to cheat sheets, I hang math word walls in my classroom. My Algebra 2 word wall keeps growing as more teachers email asking for additions. This parent graph for rational functions was a recent addition. 


"2 truths and a lie" rational functions error analysis activity

Here's a "2 truths and a lie" rational functions error analysis activity where students are presented with 3 statements about rational functions and need to figure out which is wrong (the "lie"). Students then correct each lie on their answer sheets.



You can download the graphing rational functions cheat sheet free here in my Google Drive.



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9 comments:

  1. Hi! I am looking to purchase your graphing rational functions item ebut its not on the store and the link takes you to simplifying. help!

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    1. Oh it's free! It's in the sidebar of my blog (in the light blue box "dropbox"). If you can't find it I am happy to send it if you drop me an email. scaffoldedmath@gmail.com

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  2. i love this organizer! thank you so much!

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    1. I'm so glad! Thank you for leaving a comment!

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  3. Thank you so much for this--it is wonderful! One small thing is that I think that it would help my students if it said something like "set the remaining factors in the numerator equal to zero and solve for x" for x-intercepts and something similar for vertical asymptotes. Is it possible to get a word document so that I would be able to alter this for my students?

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    1. Thank you for the comment and suggestion. The original isn't a Word document so I unfortunately would not be able to provide that. I am sorry!

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    2. No worries! Thank you!

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  4. Thank you for so many helpful resources! I am teaching math 3 for the first time this semester and your resources are a wonderful help.

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    1. This makes me really happy to hear. Thank you so much for taking time out to leave a comment. I hope you are having a wonderful year.

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