Lesson Plan: Function Operations

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Grade: 11 - 12
Content Area: Math
1. Content and Standards:
A. F-BF.A.1b: Combine standard function types using arithmetic operations
B. F-BF.A.1c: Compose functions
C. MP1, MP2, MP 3, MP4

2. Prerequisites:
A. Knowledge regarding properties functions
B. Knowledge of operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
C. Knowledge of operations with polynomial functions and radical functions

3. Essential Questions:
A. How do I add/subtract/multiply/divide any functions?
B. How do I build a function from another?
C. What is a composite function?

4. Materials and Equipment:

5. Instructional Objective:
A. Students will be able to correctly add, subtract, multiply, and divide functions.
B. Students will be able to correctly find the composite of two functions.

6. Instructional Procedures:
A. Before:
a. Desmos Activity
i. Warm-up: Students will spend 5 minutes working on problems to review
topics from last lesson
1. Review questions based on problems found in the textbook:
Problems 5, 7, 8 on pg 394.
1. I will then request for students to assist in talking/assisting me
through the problem solution
2. Or read the anonymized responses that the students wrote in the
activity and use that to guide my work to the class.
 3. Or we will review the problems as a class through questioning
techniques.
a. “What do you guys remember about solving radical
equations?”
b. What are the steps we use to solve radical equations?
ii. Formative Task: Students will spend 10-15 minutes working an
application problem that utilizes ideas and concepts from today’s lesson on
function operations
1. Application problem are based on example problem 4 on pg 400:
“Using Composite Functions”
a. Students will solve an application problem regarding the
order in which a discount and a coupon is applied to their
pizza order.
b. This would allow students to understand the effects of
composing functions as well as applying some aspects of
function operations.
2. For this formative task, students will view the problem through
Desmos Activity, but will complete their response on paper and
submitting it through the assignment tab in Google Classroom.
3. When we go over the activity I would consider the following:
a. If I notice that there are a lot of responses I would ask for
input from the class to help guide me.
b. If there are responses but no volunteers I could cold call the
students or I could use their responses in the activity to
guide my responses.
c. If I notice that the students are struggling with the activity I
would explain to them that the purpose of the assignment is
for them to try their best using what they know, so it is
alright to not be able to answer the problem.
d. If the student shows obvious confusion, then I would
suggest that we come back to the problems in this activity
after the end of the lesson as a form of practicing and
applying their knowledge before going into the graded exit
ticket.

B. During:
a. I would first briefly recall the concepts we had learned from operations with
power functions and radical functions by asking for student participation to help
re-establish some of the operations that we can perform with power functions.
 i. “Recall in our previous lesson, we learned about operations with power
functions, like square or cubic function, or radical functions like square
roots, or cube root functions.. Let’s recall some of the operations that we
can do with them.
1. In the process I would be writing down their responses on my
Jam-board to help students keep track of what they’ve said to
indicate that their responses are valued.
2. Expected responses: “We can add/subtract/multiply/divide...”
b. I would then introduce the topic as well as the objective of this lesson, verbally.
i. “We will be learning about operations with any types of functions. So do
you guys/gals think the types of operations would still be appropriate with
different types of functions? Like adding a square root to a power
function?”
1. Students might say:
a. Yes it should be possible, we can find a value on a
calculator
b. Maybe, but I don’t know how?
c. I don’t think so, since we can’t simplify the expressions
2. I would then springboard into how we represent functions, through
function notations.
2
a. Setting f(x)=𝑥 and g(x)= 𝑥
2
b. Then we would simply replace 𝑥 and 𝑥 respectively with
f(x) and g(x) and perform the operations of
addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.
3. This would help springboard the idea of describing how we use
function notations to represent operations.
a. (f+g)(x)= f(x) + g(x)
b. (f-g)(x) = f(x) - g(x)
c. (f•g)(x)= f(x)•g(x)
d. (f/g)(x) = f(x)/g(x)
c. We would first show the idea of applying these function operations through
examples of all four operations: addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.
i. Throughout each example, I would also ask the students about the domain
and range of our operated functions.
ii. I will do an example on the board while also asking check-in questions
before I write the work down.
iii. I will present another problem for the students to practice independently
and then share their answers
iv. I will then use questioning techniques to help students arrive at the answer.
 1. If someone gets it correct the first time, I would not verify the
answer but instead ask if anyone else had a different response as a
chance to correct any misunderstanding.
2. If a student does not understand the problem or was not able to get
to the answer, I would ask the class if anyone can help out.
d. Next I would relate to our formative task, by suggesting that we combine different
operations in different orders to introduce the idea of composite functions.
1. “ Now that we’re able to operate on functions in a very broad and
general sense, how about we bring it back to our formative task,
and see how we can also generalize the process of operating our
coupon and discount functions in different orders?
2. Then reference the discount and coupon functions from formative
tasks to help relate the idea of composite functions again.
a. The composite function of using coupon first then discount
b. The composite function of suing discount then coupon
3. Describe the correspondence of each composite function's domains
and range in relation to their individual functions.
4. Finally generalize the composite function using function notation
as well as describing the steps in evaluating composite functions.
a. (𝑓 ◦ 𝑔)(𝑥) = f(g(x))
i. Evaluate g(x) first using x
ii. Then plug in results of g(x) into f(x) to obtain a
solution
b. (𝑔 ◦ 𝑓)(𝑥) = g(f(x))
i. Evaluate f(x) first using x
ii. Then plug in results, f(x), into g(x) to obtain the
solution.
5. Practice with some examples
a. I would also ask the students about the domain and range
of our operated functions.
b. I will do an example on the board while also asking
check-in questions before I write the work down.
c. I will present another problem for the students to practice
independently and then share their answers
d. I will then use questioning techniques to help students
arrive at the answer.
i. If someone gets it correct the first time, I would not
verify the answer but instead ask if anyone else had
a different response as a chance to correct any
misunderstanding.
 ii. If a student does not understand the problem or was
not able to get to the answer, I would ask the class if
anyone can help out.

C. After:
a. If we did not complete the formative task, I would spend this time working
with the class to go over the problem.
b. I would then summarize the concepts we have learned in this lesson as
well as re-explain the objective of this lesson.
c. The students will then spend the remainder of class time completing their
exit ticket, which is assigned through Pearson’s Savvas; which will be
counted as a classwork grade.
If students complete classwork early they are encouraged to begin
the homework assignment which is to be completed before our
next class.
7. Assessment:
Formative assessment:
A. Through the warm-up activity in Desmos activity I am able to gauge each
student's response to determine if they were able to recall concepts from the
previous section; which would facilitate my decision to work in small group
learning in breakout groups during the formative task segment of the lesson.
B. Through the formative task activity in Desmos activity, I am able to observe and
gain an understanding of the level that the students are at, regarding concepts and
ideas on inverse relations and functions. This will act as a pre-test regarding what
the students start the lesson knowing.
C. Throughout the lesson, I will also use check-in questions and other forms of
questioning techniques to continually gauge the student’s understanding and grasp
of the present knowledge.
D. Exit Ticket: Students will complete 4 questions in which they will apply the skills
they have learned directly after the lesson; while their thoughts are still fresh in
their minds. Based on their results, it will help me determine my next course of
action for the next lesson.
E. Homework: Homework is graded on completion, so the students earn 100 in the
assignment as long as they try on the homework. This allows me to observe how
well the students are able to retain the information from this lesson after 48 hours.
I will also provide feedback to help students better understand the problems by
commenting on their submission through the assignment in Google Classroom.
F. The results from the exit ticket and homework would help guide my decision
regarding whether or not I should revisit the lesson:
 a. If more than half the class correctly answers more than half of the
questions correctly and does well on the homework , I will move onto the
next lesson.
b. If more than half of the students did not answer more than half of the
questions correctly, I would revisit this in the next lesson; specifically
planning out activities/assignments to highlight and correct
misconceptions that were noticed in the classwork and homework.

8. Differentiated Instruction:
A. In my Desmos Activities:
a. Warm-Up: I explain to the students that I would like for them to reach the 2nd
slide, out of 3 total slides, as my standard during the 5 minutes. But if they find
themselves struggling it would be alright to complete the first slide only. Finally if
they would like to challenge themselves or find that they were able to complete
the second slide before the 5 minute mark, I would suggest for them to move on
and try the rest of the warm-up.
b. Formative Task: I provide the same explanation as I did for the warm-up.
i. Slide 4-5: Students who find themselves struggling to work
ii. Slide 6-7: The standard level I expect the class to maintain
iii. Slide 8: If they complete the problem before 15 minutes or would like to
challenge themselves.
B. Students will also have access to the Desmos activity up until a year after the date that the
lesson was instructed.
C. If student or student(s) need extra help are display need, we can create a break out room
for small group learning, such as for ELs; where the main teacher would work with the
class while I would work with the other students for extra practice and help; this could be
done during the formative task segment or after the instruction ends (which is about 30
minutes before class ends)
D. Typically the lesson is completed with at least 30 minutes before the lesson ends, so
students potentially have 30 minutes to complete the classwork if necessary.
E. Although classwork is graded, the lowest a student can score is a 65.
a. E.g. If they were having a bad day and only obtained 2 correct answers (50
points) then we would still score it as a 65 in the grade book.
F. Homework is only graded on completion; so they earn 100 points as long as they try to
answer the questions on the homework.
G. Students will be provided with a copy of the PowerPoint slide deck used for this lesson
(which includes the vocabulary and concepts) and will also be provided with the
Jamboard of the work completed together as a class.
9. Resources:
A. Textbook:
Pearson’s Algebra 2 Common Core. Charles, R. I., Hall, B., Kennedy, D., Bellman, A.,
Bragg, S., Handlin, W. G., . . . Wiggins, G. (2015). Algebra 2: Common Core. Boston,
MA: Pearson.
B. PowerPoint Presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fDMP6bVa_3Hp-al9fvbMwPFlhmTajBJ3MKOP
MYCZnkk/edit?usp=sharing
C. Jamboard:
a. 4th Period:
i. Desmos Activity Warm-up/Formative Task:
https://student.desmos.com/join/va83k2
ii. Warm-up/Formative Task Class Review Solutions:
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1kkTZhqRZVx5hj120fIY-uA-Ua5Klb0coc
49N_uR2OhY/edit?usp=sharing
iii. Instructional Procedures:
https://jamboard.google.com/d/1-T511m3Z2W-9xE5LGX0wOZGhsgri6J
KKo0_6QnNT4yY/edit?usp=sharing
D. Classwork:
a.

b.

c.
 d.

E. Homework:
a. Homework: Problems 22-40 pg 402