Activity Overview
The New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) assesses skills, concepts and understanding. The following activities address Cluster IV: Patterns, Functions and Algebra with emphasis on Macro A.
Before the Activity
The New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) assesses skills, concepts and understanding in four cluster areas.
The following file, Cluster4.tip, addresses Grade 11 Cluster IV: Patterns, Functions and Algebra.
Particular emphasis is on Macro A: Use iterative and recursive patterns and processes to model a variety of practical situations and solve problems. The materials in this file are by no means comprehensive. They will, however, be an excellent resource, and provide a good jumping off point for further investigation.
Cluster4.tip contains the following files:
1. AnalyzingArithmeticSequencesRecursively.doc - an investigation which uses the graphing calculator to analyze patterns recursively. Graphs of arithmetic sequences are also looked at.
2. Analyzing...ActivityAssessment.edc - a LearningCheck file which the teacher can use to assess what the student has learned from doing the activity. The questions asked are similar to those asked in the activity.
3. ARITHSEQ.8xp - a TI 83+/84+ program which generates a random arithmetic sequence gives the user the first three terms of the sequence and asks the user to find a particular term of the sequence. The user has two chances to get it right. Pressing enter at the end of the program will re-execute the program. The program can be used to provide practice in finding a particular term of an arithmetic sequence.
4. Cluster 4Assessment.edc- a LearningCheck file which is best used as a test bank. Questions are of the Multiple Choice, True False and Short Answer formats. These questions can be used as a test bank and pulled into a new edc file to give a class an assessment. Although True False questions are not part of the HSPA format, they can be used in a discussion for deciding what would need to be done to a false statement to make it a true one.
After the Activity
Review student results:
As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging
Re-teach concepts as necessary