Lesson Study Final Report Part I: Background Lesson Topic: Rational expressions: addition and subtraction Discipline or Field:

Mathematics Authors: Laura Schmidt Diane Christie Note: Anne Antonippillai and Haiyan Tian were also part of the original lesson study team but were only able to participate in the first presentation of the lesson during the fall semester of 2005. Lesson Site: University of WisconsinStout Course Name: Intermediate Algebra Course Description: This course develops basic algebraic skills: factoring, exponents, rational expressions, linear equations and inequalities, systems of equations, quadratic equations, and an introduction to functions. This course is not a terminal course for any of the majors on campus, but a prerequisite to the courses they need. Students lacking in high school mathematics skills from all majors across campus take this course to get into the math classes they need for their majors. Class sizes are 36 students maximum. They are conducted in a networked classroom, and all students have laptop computers. It is a hybrid class; the lecture/discussion is given for the first part of the 55 minute period, then students begin work on their homework assignment. All assignments, tests and quizzes are completed online. This lesson comes about 2 months into the course. By this time, students have learned to factor polynomials. In the previous lesson, students learned to multiply and divide rational expressions. Summary: Our overall learning goal is to have students be able to add and subtract rational expressions. Our lesson reviewed addition and subtraction of fractions, demonstrated addition and subtraction of simple rational expressions, and worked up to difficult examples. However, our findings showed that even though students were successful at the beginning problems in the homework, they were intimidated by the difficult look of the later homework problems and simply did not attempt them. In our revised lesson, we used more difficult examples, and stressed that the steps remain the same even though it looked much harder than previous examples.

Part II: The Lesson Learning Goals: 1) Add or subtract rational expressions with common denominators 2) Identify the least common denominator of two or more rational expressions 3) Add or subtract rational expressions with unlike denominators Long-term Goals (not directly assessed by lesson): 4) Realize the connection between adding/subtracting rational numbers and adding/subtracting rational expressions 5) Ease anxiety when dealing with fractions Lesson Design (final version): 1) The instructor should plan on demonstrating the connections between fractions and simple rational expressions. Thus we begin with discussing the following examples of fractions to help students recall some basics. (Duration: 2 minutes)
1 5 a) 8 8 2 3 b) 5 7

c)

8 5 15 12

Then we begin the new content as follows: 2) Write two examples with common denominators on the board and discuss solutions with the class, asking questions of the students and soliciting suggestions for each step. (Duration: 5 minutes)
2 3 a) x x

b)

3x x 1 x2 x2

3) Give the students a similar problem to work on individually or in pairs. Then the students will provide the instructor with the solution. (Duration: 5 minutes)
x 2 x 5 x 10 x 10

4) Write several examples on the board and discuss solutions with the class. These examples should contain rational expressions with un-like denominators and should increase in difficulty level with the instructor still prompting students for input in the working of the problem. We attempted to ease student anxiety by providing a list of steps, demonstrating the steps on several increasingly difficult problems, and showing the students that even very complicated looking problems should be worked in the same manner as simple rational expressions. Therefore, after the first example, the instructor should discuss these general steps for solving a problem with un-like denominators, list them on the board, and pass out the handout of general steps for the students to reference

(refer to Steps to Add and Subtract Rational Expressions). Then the instructor will continue discussing the solutions to the remaining examples demonstrating the steps on these more difficult examples. (Duration: 30 minutes)
x4 5 2 2 x 10 x 10 x 25 5 5 1 2 2 x 4 x 8 x 16 x 16

a)

3 4 x 1 x 1 2x 8 x3 2 3x 8 x 4 3x 5 x 2
2

b)

c)

d)

e)

2x 8 x5 x 1 2 2 x 5 x 6 x 4 x 3 x 3x 2
2

5) Give the students similar examples on a worksheet (refer to Student Worksheet). Ask them to work on the sheet in pairs at their table. The instructor should walk around the classroom helping students as they complete the worksheet. Collect the worksheets when the students are finished. (Duration: 10 minutes) 6) Use remaining class time to let students begin their homework and instructor should walk around the classroom and answer any remaining questions. Handout: Steps to Add and Subtract Rational Expressions 1. Factor denominators. 2. Find Least Common Denominator (LCD). 3. For each rational expression, compare denominator to LCD and multiply numerator by missing factors from LCD. 4. Combine numerators of rational expressions and put over LCD. 5. Simplify result by factoring numerator and canceling factors common with denominator. Student Worksheet: Perform the indicated operation and simplify the answer. Turn in the worksheet to your instructor when completed. 1.
5 7 2x 3 x 1

2.

2x 2 x 1 2 x 4 x 3 x 5x 6
2

3.

2 4 3 2 2 x 5 x 6 x 4 x 3 x 3x 2
2

Rationale: We chose the topic because students have had difficulty in the past adding and subtracting rational expressions. It is important for students to understand the material since the topic is utilized in subsequent sections. The main idea of our design was to begin with previous knowledge on the algebra of rational numbers so that we could connect the students to those ideas later. We then began a method of doing examples on the board and then had students try one on their own. We thought it best to demonstrate the method of adding and subtracting rational expressions first. The practice of working problems is where most students learn best, therefore after the instructor demonstrates a problem we had similar examples for the students to try. We were hopeful that students would participate with questions and ideas for solutions. The classroom is set up with six round tables which makes group work an ideal method. We began with three examples of rational numbers, one with common denominators and two with un-like denominators. We specifically chose the third example with larger denominators so that the students would recall finding the factors of the denominators in order to find the least common denominator instead of just a common denominator. When we chose the common denominator rational expression examples we reminded the students how we just add or subtract the numerators. We specifically chose a subtraction example to remind students to distribute the minus sign with each term in the numerator of the following rational expression. We chose the examples for the rational expressions with un-like denominators because we wanted to start out simple and increase in difficulty level. The number of expressions to be added increased in the example with three rational expressions and also increased the difficulty in the factorization of the denominators. We specifically chose some examples where the answers could be rewritten in reduced forms at the end to remind students to check that final step in their answers. Due to the anxiety that this lesson has caused in the past, we made sure to choose hard examples by the end so that students could be exposed to more difficult problems. When we reviewed the data from the first lesson we discovered that students were simply not trying the harder factoring examples with three expressions, so we included those in the final revised lesson plan. Student learning was visible when students worked similar problems in class. They were encouraged to participate during the class time and were prompted to answer questions throughout the lesson. At the end of the lesson the worksheets were collected so that the lesson study team could assess student learning.

Part III: The Study

Introduction: Adding and subtracting rational expressions has historically been a hard section for students. Many students have had difficulties with adding and subtracting fractions because of the number of steps involved. Just the thought of working with fractions causes some students anxiety. Transferring the skills involved in working with fractions to working with rational expressions is not easy for these students. To add to this difficulty, the polynomials in the rational expressions can get complicated quickly, making the problems look ominous. Results from the first lesson indicated that many students didnt attempt many of the problems at the end of the assignment because they appeared too tough. The first challenge is convincing students to try the problems. With this in mind, the lesson was redesigned to provide more difficult problem examples so that students would have more familiarity with the complicated problems and would attempt all the problems on the assignment. Approach: The types of evidence collected were on-line homework assignments, in-class worksheets, observations from team members and the video tape of the lesson. We analyzed the data by measuring the amount of incorrect and incomplete problems on the homework assignment. This helped us to determine what types of questions the students had difficulties on. We corrected the collected worksheets and took a count on how many students got each question correct. For the team member observations we had the following focal questions on a check list for them. We used the responses to measure student engagement and participation. We also watched the video tape of the revised lesson to help determine findings. Focal Questions: During lecture time: Do students seem engaged? Participating Note taking Asking questions Visual facial cues (nodding, etc.) How many students are engaged? Who is engaged? Who are actively participating? During worksheet time: Do students understand the method for solving the problems? Referring to handout Mentioning steps Where are they getting stuck? Which step?

 How did they get unstuck? Did an instructor help them, another student, etc? Did the students feel they got the right answers at the end? Are they confident of the method? During the examples presented on the board, the observers focused on trying to determine the level of student engagement. Student thinking was visible through student volunteered suggestions solicited by the instructor. During the worksheet time, the observers focused on student understanding and confidence. Student thinking was visible by discussions between students and by questions asked of the instructor. Findings: Our findings, from the first lesson, showed that even though students were successful at the beginning problems in the homework, they were intimidated by the difficult look of the later homework problems and simply did not attempt them. This was evident in the analysis of the homework where the amount of incomplete problems drastically increased at a certain problem when the difficulty level was higher. When we discussed this trend with colleagues we discovered this trend was occurring in several classes. The table below displays the results from 4 sections of Intermediate Algebra (118 total students). Question Number Total number of students with correct answer 118 115 111 116 116 113 112 108 109 95 93 97 79 73 52 92 71 84 74 Total number of students with incorrect answer 0 2 3 0 0 1 1 3 2 15 7 1 9 15 23 2 14 3 19 Total number of students with incomplete answers 0 1 4 2 2 4 5 7 7 8 18 20 30 40 43 24 33 31 25

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

It is clear from the table above that the students began experiencing problems at question 11 (first problem with unlike denominators where factoring a trinomial is

required) and experienced the most severe difficulties on questions 14 (example of problem with unlike denominators where both denominators are trinomials that require factoring) and 15 (example of problem with unlike denominators with three rational expressions). Questions 16-19 eased up a bit in difficulty which is apparent with the decrease in the number of students with incomplete answers. In our revised lesson, we used more difficult examples, and stressed that the steps remain the same even though it looked much harder than previous examples. From viewing the video tape, reading the observations, and correcting the in-class worksheets, it appears that most students were experiencing difficulty with steps 3 and 4 in the process. That is, they could correctly identify the least common denominator (steps 1-2) but had difficulties combining the expressions (steps 3-4). From the mistakes that occurred on the worksheets 43% were due to a missing factor in the numerator (step 3). Even if they did the problem correct there were several students who did not quite trust their answer and would ask for confirmation. Working harder examples during the revised lesson helped with students ability to complete the problems. The table below displays the results from the section of Intermediate Algebra which received the revised lesson (32 total students). Question Number Total number of students with correct answer 32 32 31 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 31 31 28 25 30 29 29 27 Total number of students with incorrect answer 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 1 1 1 Total number of students with incomplete answers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 3 2 2 2 4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

On question 11, zero students got the answer incorrect or incomplete as opposed to 21% of the previous students. For questions 14 and 15 the percentage of incorrect and incomplete answers decreased from 46% to 12% and 55% to 21%. Although we have only one section of students to compare, it appears the revised lesson has improved the homework results. However, without more time to practice their confidence was still shaky. Several days later when the students had to use the lesson to solve equations

involving rational expressions their confidence level was greater and the majority of students got the correct answers. For the revised lesson class, the maximum number of students that got either an incorrect/incomplete answer on any problem from the later homework section was 3 whereas on the original lessons homework section the maximum number was 7 students (question 15) demonstrating an increase in their skills and confidence. In the table below, we compare the homework results from the first lesson class and the revised lesson class on the application homework section that took place several days later. As you can see, even though more students are in the revised lesson class they had fewer incorrect/incomplete answers for most of the questions demonstrating once again that covering more difficult examples in the revised lesson improved the results. Question Number Total number of incorrect/incomplete answers-first lesson (25 total students) 0 0 0 2 5 1 1 6 3 3 2 7 3 11 Total number of incorrect/incomplete answers-revised lesson (35 total students) 0 0 0 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Discussion: Our findings demonstrate that our student learning goals were achieved with the revision of our lesson. The students developed an improved understanding of adding and subtracting rational expressions and were no longer giving up on questions. There could be several factors involved in this result. One factor could be student anxiety when dealing with fractions. Students in this class are typically students who have disliked or have had bad experiences with math throughout their years in school, and have probably taken as few math classes as possible in high school. Their last math course may have been several years prior to taking this class. They may feel anxiety at having to take another math course. The student may feel that they will not do well since they have always been bad at math. Fractions are typically a source of student difficulties, and may cause even more anxiety than other topics. Demonstrating increasingly difficult problems, starting with simple fractions and working up to complex rational expressions, allowed students to observe that the same

procedures are used no matter how difficult the problem looks. This could lead to an increase in confidence as the students continue obtaining correct answers on the assignment. This was one of our long-term goals (goal 5) which was not directly assessed in our lesson. The lesson might be studied more effectively with student reflection questions to assess if their level of anxiety has decreased. This area needs to be explored further. Another factor that could be contributing to the successful results is that students observed, demonstrated first hand in the difficult examples worked by the teacher, that correctly worked math problems can take quite a bit of time, even when you are a well practiced teacher! A typical belief that students develop as a result of their experiences with math is stated by Schoenfeld as follows: Students who understand the subject matter can solve assigned mathematics problems in five minutes or less. Corollary: Students stop working on a problem after just a few minutes because, if they havent solved it, they didnt understand the material (and therefore will not solve it). Shoenfeld argues that students who have finished a full twelve years of mathematics have worked thousands of problems, virtually none of which were expected to take the students more than a few minutes to complete. Students assume that if they have taken longer than the anticipated few minutes to complete a problem, they must not understand the material correctly. This self-defeating belief about their ability to do math leads students to give up easily when faced with difficult problems. Students believe that if you cant do math problems quickly, then you probably cant do them at allso give up. Although it is not clear if it is due to the proposed factors (or possibly others not mentioned), our research lesson seems to have helped students by giving them experience with difficult problems of combining rational expressions. The implication for teaching and student learning is that as long as we cover more difficult examples in class the students will be able to solve the problems on homework. Further research should investigate whether this experience reduces anxiety, re-adjusts student beliefs about solving math problems, improves confidence or leads to greater persistence. The results of our lesson study could also have broader implications. Would working difficult problems in class be beneficial in other courses as well? If students see us as teachers, working the tougher problems that take more thought and time, they can see that mathematics is not just following a formula to get a quick result, but a problem solving process that uses mathematical principles to come to a logical result. This would expand into science as well. We made some final revisions to our lesson by changing a few examples to cover one type of question we missed with multiple factors missing in the numerator of a rational expression. Overall, our final lesson showed a marked improvement in student understanding and correct completion of the assignment. Schoenfeld, Alan H., When Good Teaching Leads to Bad Results: The Disasters of Well-Taught Mathematics Courses, Educational Psychologist, 23(2), 145-166, 1988.