Administer the learning check entrance slip and allow student to use calculators. The goal of the entrance slip is to gauge student understanding of initial amount, rate of change, and how these work together in the structure of a linear function rule (slope intercept form). Collect the entrance slips and grade them to record the mastery level of each student in whatever system you use (I keep a spreadsheet usually either in Excel or my computer gradebook Infinite Campus). Pass these back to students on the following day so they can keep a personal assessment log of their understanding of initial amount, rate of change, and function rules.
This is an important time to allow students to present their thinking to the group about the importance of the zero figure and how to express the rate of change as repeated edition in the function rule (multiplication with rate of change) (MP3).
For homework I would assign a sheet with about 10-12 problems using tables, graphs, and word problems to ask students to find the initial amount and rate of change to write a function rule. Keep the tables fairly simple on rate of change (no rational rates of change on this homework page).