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Rationalizing the Denominator Question Stack Activity

I created this question stack activity to give my students some much-needed practice with rationalizing the denominator.

rationalizing the denominator activity (question stack)

Question stacks are one of my favorite practice structures.  Students are given a double-sided deck of ten cards.  One side of the card features a question.  The other side features the answer to a DIFFERENT question.  

Students begin the activity by turning over all of the cards to reveal ALL of the answers.  I tell my students this is their answer bank.  

Then, students flip over one card of their choosing.  This will be their first problem to solve.  When students find the solution, it should be in the answer bank if they have done everything correctly.  They pick up the solution card and flip it over to reveal the next question. 

I love question stacks because they are self-checking.  This means I can focus my help on the groups struggling the most.  The answer bank gets smaller and smaller with each question which helps build student confidence.  

Here are the questions.  I put boxes around the questions to make them easier to spot. 

And, here’s the answer bank.

Make Your Own Question Stacks

Want to make your own question stack activity? I have created an easy to use printable question stack template that works perfectly every time. All you have to do is add your own questions!

make your own question stack template.

Anonymous

Sunday 24th of March 2019

Thank you! I used the question stack problems as notes practice problems. Very quick and helpful. -Dawn

Anonymous

Friday 12th of May 2017

There are two of the same answers (square root of 6 over 3). It makes it not work out if they pick the "wrong" one.

Nancy in Indiana

Wednesday 22nd of March 2017

Thanks for explaining how questions stacks work. Something I might want to try in German...

Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove)

Friday 24th of March 2017

You're welcome, Nancy!

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