Lesson Plan and Facilitators’ Guide

Lindsey Kyle and Susan Kessler

Lesson Overview: Ways to classify shapes

Lesson Objective: The objective of our lesson is for students to recognize different attributes of
shapes, and correctly differentiate between them in order to sort shapes accordingly. Students
will be able to explain and identify types of lines (e.g. parallel and perpendicular) and types of
angles (e.g. acute, right, obtuse). Students will use an instructional tool, Nearpod, to complete
activities.

Rationale: In this lesson, students use the presence or absence of angles (right, obtuse, acute),
parallel sides, or perpendicular sides to identify and discern the differences between the shapes.
Based on our individual inquiry paper, we found that the students, particularly Jack, could use
more instruction in how to classify shapes based on various attributes. Our research into practice
topic was focused on Big Idea 3, classifying properties of objects (Slovin & Lehrer, 2014).
Slovin and Lehrer (2014) state that “classification schemes and associated defining properties
depend on the purposes and contexts envisioned for mathematical investigation, and multiple
classification schemes are often possible” (p. 48). We found that Jack was limited in his ability to
classify shapes beyond the number of sides. This lesson will provide an introduction and review
for both students to gain a deeper understanding of different attributes of shapes, such as angles
and lines, and use this knowledge to sort shapes. While Jeremiah exhibited evidence in our
inquiry that he was “oscillating between newer and older concepts” (Shifter, 1999, p. 363), we
still felt that both students are at the lower stages of thinking in regards to relationships between
shapes. Our goal with this instructional activity is to move students’ geometric thinking to level
3. Driscoll et al. (2007) define stage 3 as “students’ shape concept consists of many examples
and a set of critical properties” (p. 35). We want students to be able to classify shapes based on
the variety of attributes they are knowledgeable about, and understand that there are typical and
atypical shapes. The instructional activity will be taught using a technology app called Nearpod.
Students will show their understanding by completing activities in real time on computers or
tablets. Nearpod allows for the teacher to instruct on a new skill and view all students’ work
simultaneously as well as share students’ work. There are a variety of different online activities
students can complete in one lesson, which allows students to engage with the material in
different ways to better support their understanding.

Sample Expectations for Student Initial Understandings:

It is our opinion that students will be showing initial understandings if they can recognize the
following:
● A right angle measures exactly 90 degrees
● An acute angle measures less than 90 degrees
 ● An obtuse angle measures more than 90 degrees
● Parallel lines are lines that never intersect
● Perpendicular lines are lines that intersect at exactly 90 degrees
● One way to classify quadrilaterals is by parallel or non parallel lines
● One way to classify triangles is by the types of angles

Final Insights
Based on our initial inquiry, it is our hope that Jack and Jeremiah will continue to be
exposed to more geometric activities to help further develop their geometric habits of mind. We
feel that we designed this activity to do just that, while also pushing the use of technology
through Nearpod. As Clements and Sarama (2002) say, "we can use technology to teach the same
old in the same way, or we can capitalize on the benefits of technology by using integrated
computer activities to increase achievement" (p. 342). The addition of technology is elevating
their learning, and allowing for more time to explore other attributes of shapes than our previous
tasks may have allowed.
Throughout the lesson the students will be reasoning with relationships due to the fact
that both students will be looking for relationships between the geometric figures by comparing
shapes and thinking about which attributes they have in common (Driscoll et al., 2007).
Another avenue in which these tasks can support the geometric habits of mind is through
balancing exploration and reflection. Throughout these activities, students are tasked with using
the interactive tools in Nearpod to think about and then draw different shapes. This encourages
balancing exploration and reflection because they are “trying various ways to approach a
problem and regularly stepping back to take stock" (Driscoll et al., 2007, p.14). Students might
have to take a step back to make sure they are on the right track with their drawing, or scroll
back to the provided examples and analyze their work.
Driscoll et al. (2007) states, “you would also be Generalizing geometric ideas if you used
similarity relationships to reason…” (p. 73). A big component of these tasks is for the students to
identify the similarities and differences between the given shapes. In one example, students are
tasked with looking at a variety of triangles in order to identify all the shapes with a right angle.
They are thinking about how they can classify shapes based on the attributes or generalized
geometric ideas of those shapes. In conclusion, the objective of the lesson is for students to be
able to classify shapes using various attributes because based on our research we found that our
students needed more instruction in this area to further develop their geometric thinking.
 References

Clements, D. H., & Sarama, J. (2002). The Role of Technology in Early Childhood Learning.

Teaching Children Mathematics, 8(6), 340–343. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41197828.

Driscoll, M. J., DiMatteo, R. W., Nikula, J., & Egan, M. (2007). Fostering geometric thinking: A

guide for teachers, grades 5-10. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Shifter, D (1999). Learning geometry: Some insights drawn from teacher writing. Teaching

Children Mathematics, 360-366.

Slovin, H. & Lehrer, R. (2014). Geometry and measurement: the big idea and essential

understandings. In B. J. Dougherty & R. M. Zbiek (Eds.), Developing essential

understanding of geometry & measurement grades 3-5, (pp. 7 – 59). National Council of

Teachers of Mathematics.