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Geometric Shapes Level: Intermediate --- Content: Mathematics |
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Mr. Dante teaches
middle level mathematics. His class is currently studying a unit on geometric
concepts. This unit will meet the learning standard that expects students to
be able to identify and describe properties of basic geometric shapes. Mr.
Dante wanted to start the lesson with an exploration activity and gradually
increase students’ readiness to apply their knowledge. The first activity was
designed to engage students in understanding properties of geometric shapes
from their own perspective. To begin Mr. Dante introduced students to the
online collaborative diagramming tool, Cacoo
(http://cacoo.com). In addition students were introduced to key
characteristics of effective teams. After receiving a ten-minute
introduction, students were placed into teams to use Cacoo
to diagram their team’s vision of “how a team works together” and align those
elements with the key characteristics of effective teams. Finally students
had to document how they would demonstrate those traits in their
collaborative work together. As an introduction to
the activity, student teams first had to utilize their laptops to answer the
first question: What are
geometric shapes? When the individual teams had answered
the question, they provided Mr. Dante with a review of their findings. To
provide a quick formative assessment of student findings, and ensure students
were on the right track, Mr. Dante had students use the Instant Messaging
tool Pidgin to message him a summary of their findings. When Mr. Dante
replied to the student teams with clarifying questions, and when they had
successfully responded to the questions student teams continued the lesson. For the next activity,
student teams were provided digital cameras to capture pictures of geometric
shapes. They conducted an investigation whereby they took their understanding
of geometric shapes and looked for examples of those shapes in their
environment. When student teams
returned to class, they used their class Wiki (which Mr. Dante had created at
the beginning of the year and continued to develop). Their task was to gain a
foundational understanding of the eight geometric properties including
altitudes, diagonals, angle bisectors, perpendicular bisectors, central
angles, radii, diameters, and chords of circles. Once students had discussed
these eight properties with their teams, and felt confident of their
understanding, they continued in their work. Mr. Dante gave each team a
checklist of items he was looking for to assess their understanding which he
created using the Intel Assessing Projects tool. Next, the students
used Cacoo to collaboratively document one of eight
geometric properties using the pictures that they captured as a team.
Students uploaded their pictures and then used the tools in Cacoo to document each of the eight properties. The goal
of this activity was to answer the unit question: How are geometrical properties represented in our
environment? Mr. Dante had student
groups share their work with him via Cacoo. He
provided feedback to each group and ultimately assessed their ability to
identify geometric shapes, eight geometric properties, and work
collaboratively to demonstrate understanding. When students received
feedback they worked in teams to correct any misunderstandings. As the unit continued,
students referred back to their work in these two initial activities to check
their understanding and continue to develop their demonstration of the eight
geometrical concepts. Student projects were added to the class Wiki, making
it possible for students to review the work of all teams and add to their
understanding of geometric properties. Tools used in this
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