Rational Expressions Question Stack Activity

I created this rational expressions question stack activity for my Algebra 2 students.

Question stacks are my favorite self-checking practice activity to create for my students.

This question stack covers both simplifying rational expressions and adding and subtracting rational expressions.

I have my students work through these in groups with mini dry erase boards.

This was very hastily put together because 1) I am a procrastinator and 2) I have first hour planning period.  That is NOT a good combination.  So, if it bothers you that I copied and pasted some questions and typed others, I apologize.  If your kids are super astute and will notice the font differences, you should probably fix this.  My kids were so stressed out about rational expressions that they didn’t seem to notice.  

I put a Q on the question side of the cards to avoid confusion.  I still had one group waste a lot of time trying to solve a problem.  They couldn’t figure it out.  I couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t simplify.  Finally, I realized that they were looking at the answer side of the card that was already simplified.  The rest of the class gave them a whole lot of grief over that!  

Here are the questions I used:

And, here are the answers.  The cards do not print with the question and answer on the same card when printed double sided.  This is by design.  The cards should form a sort of loop.  

How does a Question Stack work?

• Lay out all of the cards with the answers facing up.
• Flip over one card to reveal a question.
• Work that question out.  
• Find the answer on another card. 
• Flip that card over and lay it on top of the first question card to start a stack of questions and answers.
• Work the new problem that was just revealed.
• Repeat until you run out of cards.