Since we've been working on graphing linear equations, I made my cards by printing out some problems from the Chapter 3 Student Workbook from UtahMiddleSchoolMath.org (pgs 10-14). After cutting out the cards, I wrote the equation of the line on the back. Students had already done these problems as an assignment, but they did so poorly on the quiz that I knew they needed to revisit them.
Each student gets their own card, turns it to the graph side, writes the equation of that graph and then checks the answer on the back. The student then is the 'expert' on that problem. Students then trade with their partner across from them and write the equation for that card. If they struggle, they ask the person sitting across from them for help. I set my online bomb timer for 1-2 minutes, depending on the class. When the timer goes off everyone switches cards back so that they are holding their original problem. The students on the window side of the classroom remain seated while the students on the wall side of the classroom move one space toward to the right. Students switch again and begin working.
After students wrote the equations for all 7 problems (their own problem plus their 6 partners), I had students swap their cards diagonally and turn it to the equation side. I gave each student a set of coordinate grids kind of like this. Students then had to graph the equation that was written and we repeated the whole speed dating process with the same set of cards, but this time going from the equation to the graph.
The results? After a day of practice, when I re-quizzed my students on these topics, they did much better! A few hang-ups still: students forgetting to write a negative for equation of lines with negative slope; students who can't differentiate between y = 2x and y = 2. Any suggestions for dealing with these two issues?