Big Picture: Writing Equations in Slope-Intercept Form

Outlining when trying to write an equation in slope-intercept form can help students stay focused on the goal.

I described this basic idea in my blog post, Big Picture Equation Solving.  However, I think the strategy is even quicker and easier to do with equations in two variables. 

If you have students who are struggling to write an equation in slope-intercept form, try showing them the “big picture”.  A different perspective can make a world of difference in terms of understanding.

Here is how the big picture outline would look: 

 

The goal is to have the y term on the left, and the x term followed by the constant on the right side (y = mx + b).  I tell students to think more about rearranging the equation than about the mathematics of the task.

Making the outline before solving seems to help many of my students.

I’ve found that it helps them to see step-by-step progress toward accomplishing the goal of getting to slope-intercept form.

The challenge is to get them to make the outline on their own ...

I offer notes in my Teachers Pay Teachers store as well as a variety of products to provide practice on this topic.

Slope-Intercept Form Notes & Practice

Color by Number Slope-Intercept Form

Partner Power Slope-Intercept Form

Slope-Intercept Form Pumpkin Puzzle

Writing Equations Given Two Points or Slope and One Point

In my experience, this topic is a challenging one for algebra students every year. 

Students try to memorize the rules involved in each situation.  Then, they become frustrated by the amount of information they are trying to remember.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the best approach is to teach this from a problem-solving perspective.  My students have seemed to do better since I have been focusing on this.  They can still memorize the step-by-step rules if that works better for them.

Here’s how I ask students to approach this lesson:

•    Look at the given information.
•    Using slope-intercept form (y = mx + b), the information should represent three of the four variables.  Which of the three variables can you substitute numbers for? 

•    Solve for the remaining variable.
•    Write the resulting equation in slope-intercept form or standard form.

Remember, this is entirely about how to analyze the given information in order to problem solve.  It is not about following a learned series of steps.  

Try it out and let me know how it goes!