8th-Grade Math Assignment

Eighth-grade students look at graphs and say whether they represent a function. The assignment is partially aligned to an eighth-grade standard because it addresses the concept of a function, but it doesn’t ask students to reason about whether or not a graph represents a function.

Focus
The assignment is aligned to the content of standard 8.F.A.1 because it contains graphical representations and asks students to determine whether they are functions. Two examples represent functions and one example does not, so students can note the difference between the two.

Rigor
Standard 8.F.A.1 requires students to understand the concept of a function using different types of reasonings about graphical representations. For example, students might make connections between the visual image and the definition of a function, and reason about how and where the inputs and outputs appear on the graph. However, in this assignment students are instructed to use the vertical line test to determine whether provided graphs represent functions, a shortcut that leads to the right answer without requiring conceptual understanding of what assigning exactly one output to each input actually means.