LINEAR EQUATIONS
"The Lady Of The Lanes"

Students struggle to connect the multiple representations of equations, data tables and graphs when dealing with functions. As you introduce linear functions don't always start with an equation and ask students to generate the other representations; students should gain facility with starting from any one representation and being able to generate the others. Also keep in mind that slope is a difficult concept to fully grasp in an algebraic setting, but you can build on students' intuitive understanding of speed to help them understand the concept of slope as rate of change, comparing change in y relative to change in x.

LINEAR EQUATIONS
"The Lady Of The Lanes"

Have students perform a variety of races (some with fixed time and others with fixed distance) and make graphs comparing time and distance. They will readily tell you that the steepest lines represent the fastest people. You might have them hop so that they don't cover as much ground.