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Hayley CunninghamGeometry- LAP 6

“Characterizing Triangles”I. Content : Describe what it is you will teach. What is the content?

Students will use their knowledge of angles to engage in a sorting activity to classify

triangles based on types of angle and number of sides.

II. Learning Goal(s) : Describe what specifically students will know and be able to do after the experience of this class. Students will be able to classify triangles by angles and number of sides. Students will be able to identify and define:

o Right triangle : a triangle with one right angleo Acute triangle: a triangle with three acute angleso Obtuse triangle: a triangle with one obtuse angleo Equilateral triangle : a triangle with 3 equal sideso Isosceles triangle : a triangle with 2 equal sideso Scalene triangle : a triangle with no equal sides

III. Rationale : Explain how the content and learning goal(s) relate to your Curriculum Unit Plan learning goals.

My overarching unit goal is two-fold. The first goal is that students should be able to draw

and identify lines and angles. The second goal is for students to be able to classify shapes

(triangles and quadrilaterals). Thus far in the unit students have mastered identifying lines and

angles. This will be the first lesson on classifying triangles. Students will have the opportunity to

classify triangles by the number of sides and by the type of angle. This will give them the

foundation they need to become experts on classification and hence meet the 2nd part of my

overarching unit goal.

IV. Assessment : Describe how you and your students will know they have reached your learning goals.

The primary form of assessment takes place informally. Because this lesson focuses heavily

on peer collaboration students will be assessed on their ability to work together, stay on task, and

participate in the activity. Additionally, students will be assessed on their participation and

engagement in our whole-group discussions. In terms of formal assessment, students will have

homework that asks them to classify triangles by both sides and angles. This homework will

show me where my students need work as well as allow them to determine any questions or

confusion that they may have. This will give them insight on whether or not they have met my


“Characterizing Triangles”learning goals. Additionally, students will be assessed by means of completing their anchor

chart. Students know that they are expected to complete these anchor charts, as they will be a

resource for them when they’re completing their homework.

V. Personalization and equity : Describe how you will provide for individual student strengths and needs. How will you and your lesson consider the needs of each student and scaffold learning? How specifically will ELL students and students with learning disabilities gain access and be supported?

The first component of this lesson is a kinesthetic fluency drill that takes the form of a game.

Students will be able to review the terms line, line segment, ray, point, parallel lines,

perpendicular lines, intersecting lines, acute angle, obtuse angle, and right angle. This activity

engages students who either lack motivation or are disengaged during white board fluency drills.

This activity also helps students who are struggling with identifying lines, rays, and angles. They

can use the movements to help form an association to a vocabulary word.

The sorting activity benefits all my learners. My lower level ELL students tend to need more

stimulation in math. Giving them a chance to be hands-on with materials will help them become

motivated and be a fun way to achieve concept development. For my higher-level students, the

sorting activity will allow them to think back to 3rd grade when they were introduced to triangles.

I will probe them to use their prior knowledge to help facilitate new understandings to either

accommodate or assimilate their schemas.

Using anchor charts significantly helps all my students as well. Working through each

vocabulary word and having to write down definitions helps them retain the information better.

Also, it provides students a resource for when they’re completing their homework. In these

anchor charts students will not only have a definition, but also a visual that serves to help the

vast amount of ELL in my classroom.


“Characterizing Triangles”VI. Activity description and agenda

a. Describe the activities that will help your students understand the content of your class lesson by creating an agenda with time frames for your class. Be prepared to explain why you think each activity will help students on the path toward understanding.

Time/ Location Teacher Will Student Will Materials Needed

Fluency Drill: 0-10 Minutes/ Rug

Conduct line, ray and angle Simon says game.

Respond with movement when teacher says: “Simon says make a (ray, line, line segment, parallel line, perpendicular line, intersecting line, acute, obtuse, and right angle.

N/A

Using prior knowledge to build new knowledge:

10-20 Minutes/ Table groups

Pass out packets In pairs, observe triangles and classify them into categories

Cut out triangles in a Ziploc Bag

Substantive Conversation:


Facilitate Discussion:How did you and your partner classify the pack of triangles? Why did you classify them that way?

Participate in whole-class discussion; be actively engaged; remain on task

N/A

Technology Component:


Show Brain Pop Video on classifying triangles; ask follow up questions

Watch Brain Pop video on classifying triangles, ask questions

Elmo, Computer, Brain Pop video

Concept Development:

40-50 Minutes/ Rug

Facilitate sorting as a whole-class*

Students will engage in a whole-class sorting activity; students will classify triangles*

Easel with chart paper, premade categories, 2 packets of triangles; tape

Building Vocabulary

50-60 Minutes/ Table Seats

Prompt students to fill in their anchor charts; guide them through while answering questions

Fill in anchor chart based on the model; cut out & glue into math learning log.

Anchor chartsLarge class anchor chart


“Characterizing Triangles”Homework Distribute Classify

Triangles WorksheetAsk questions about homework if needed

Worksheets

*First sort triangles into right, obtuse, or acute. Then sort into scalene, isosceles, and equilateral. Show overlap between them.

b. What particular challenges, in terms of student learning or implementing planned activity, do you anticipate and how will you address them?

I anticipate some confusion on how triangles can overlap and be classified into two different

categories. For example, all equilateral triangles are acute triangles, isosceles triangles can be

acute, obtuse, or right triangles, and so forth. The Brain Pop video addresses this, but I will make

sure to take the extra time to explain this.

In terms of behavior, students know the expectation. At the beginning of our lesson students

will have the opportunity to reflect on things we can do individually to help our learning. This

will hopefully focus a good chunk of the class on have good behavior to have a productive class

before any problems arise. For the outliers who may not follow the expectations, they will be

asked to reflect on how they can make a better choice and be asked to make that better choice for

the remainder of the class. If they cannot, they will not be able to participate if our class earns

extra recess and have to complete any missed classwork for homework.

VII. List the Massachusetts Learning Standards this lesson addresses.

4.G.A.1 Draw points, lines, line segments, rays, angles (right, acute, obtuse), and perpendicular and parallel lines. Identify these in two-dimensional figures.

4.G.A.2 Classify two dimensional figures based on the presence or absence of parallel or perpendicular lines, or the presence or absence of angles of a specified size. Recognize right triangles as a category and identify right triangles.


“Characterizing Triangles”I. Reflection

a. In light of all areas of planning, but especially in terms of your stated purpose and learning goals, in what ways was the activity successful? How do you know? In what ways was it not successful? How might the activity be planned differently another time?

The opening of this activity went well! Students are used to the game at this point in the

unit and have a lot of fun with it! This game went on a lot longer than expected because we had 3

students at the end that I couldn’t get out. This made me happy though! I’d rather have 3 students

who can’t get be beaten than to have all my students out right away because they don’t know the

hand movements.

Sorting in groups went particularly well despite a few minor behavioral issues and

chattiness. Students worked together and were quickly able to place the triangles into groups.

Every single group classified the triangles by acute, right, or obtuse angles. It made me happy to

see them applying content without being prompted. It also gave them a chance to work hands on

with materials to help further enhance their understanding

When we came back together as a class to do a whole-class sorting, students did great! I

had a set of triangles for students to classify as triangles by angle: acute, right and obtuse and

another set to classify the triangles by length of sides: equilateral, isosceles, and scalene.

Students were able to correctly identify the attributes of each type of triangle. It was great!

Students were even picking up cross-classifying triangles. For instance an equilateral triangle has

3 acute angles.

Homework, which was my formal assessment, went well! This is how I gauged if

students were meeting my lesson objectives. For homework students had two pages. They were

asked on one page to identify the triangle as acute, obtuse or right whereas on the second page

they were asked to classify by scalene, isosceles or equilateral.

Alkawthar (see student sample 1) did awesome. She truly demonstrated her

understanding by including tick marks on page 1 to help her identify which sides were the same

length. On the second page she drew arcs to identify angles.

Gilmary (see student sample 2), who is acquiring English, did pretty well on the first

page! She definitely demonstrated an understanding of classifying triangles by length of sides.

Her struggle was on page 2, where she mixed up all the types of triangles. She demonstrated that

this aspect of classification is difficult for her. Gilmary did great when we were identifying


“Characterizing Triangles”angles, but I’m thinking that the lack of practice in using the right angle template in an actual

triangle might be throwing her off. This allows me to recognize that if she’s having difficulties,

some of my other students probably are. This is something I will definitely address in my next

lesson. We will work more with right angle template to help us identify if the triangle is greater

or less than a right angle.

If I were to implement this lesson again, I would not have each pair of students explain

how they sorted their triangles. It was long and drawn out and almost unnecessary. Students were

getting impatient and bored. Instead, I would only choose about 3 volunteers to explain their

reasoning. Additionally, I would cut out bigger triangles to give more tangibility with the pieces.

In the end, I think this lesson was a success. More than ¾ of the students were able to meet my

learning goals as they were able to accurately classifying triangles by angles and length of sides.


“Characterizing Triangles”Resources

Classroom anchor chart


“Characterizing Triangles”Student Work

Student Sample 1: Alkawathar


“Characterizing Triangles”


“Characterizing Triangles”Student Sample 2: Gilmary


“Characterizing Triangles”

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