Compound Inequalities Question Stack Activity

This Compound Inequalities Question Stack is a great self-checking activity to give your algebra students some much-needed practice with solving and graphing compound inequalities on a number line. I originally created this activity to use with my Algebra 1 students.

If you are thinking to yourself that “Sarah hasn’t taught Algebra 1 in years,” you would be right! It has been five years now since I have taught Algebra 1 which seems crazy since it was the bulk of what I taught for my first six years in the classroom.

This summer, I spent quite a few hours attempting to organize all of my files from teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra 2. In doing so, I ran across a few algebra activities that I created but never got around to sharing here on the blog.

This compound inequalities activity features ten compound inequalities for students to solve and graph.

How does a Question Stack Work?

Students lay out all of the question stack cards individually with the answer sides facing up. These cards form the “answer bank.”

In this case, each of the answers is a number line with the solution shaded.

The other side of the question stack cards features 10 questions.

These are NOT flashcards. The question on the front of a card DOES NOT MATCH the answer on the back of the card.

Students choose one card to flip over. I have them lay this card on top of their laminated question stack template so they don’t get confused. I created a laminated set of question stack instructions to use with my own students to walk them through the process of solving a question stack activity.

Students work out the problem on the card they have just flipped over. When they have decided on an answer, they check the “answer bank” to see if their answer is there.

If their answer is in the answer bank, they are (most likely) correct. If it isn’t, they know that they have made a mistake. They need to check their work and/or ask for help.

If the answer is in the answer bank, this card is flipped over to reveal a new question. This process repeats until the last question is flipped over. The answer to this card should be at the bottom of the pile if all of the questions have been answered correctly.

As students progress through the activity, the answer bank shrinks with each question solved. I find that my students’ confidence grows as the answer bank shrinks.

The question that ends up on the very top of the question stack will match the answer at the very bottom of the question stack.