MA.2.GR.1.1

Benchmark Instructional Guide

Connecting Benchmarks/Horizontal Alignment

• MA.2.FR.1.1

Terms from the K-12 Glossary

• Hexagon 
• Octagon 
• Pentagon 
• Polygon 
• Regular polygon
• Rectangle 
• Square 
• Triangle

Vertical Alignment

Previous Benchmarks

• MA.1.GR.1.1
• MA.1.GR.1.2

 

Next Benchmarks

• MA.3.GR.1.2

Purpose and Instructional Strategies

• Instruction includes experience with a variety of examples and non-examples that lack a defining attribute. 
• Instruction includes defining attributes such as numbers of sides, sides of equal length or number of vertices, whether they are closed or not and whether the edges are curved or straight.

Common Misconceptions or Errors

• Students may misidentify a figure based on a non-defining attribute. 
• Students may not recognize figures that have been rotated or that are irregular.
• Students may struggle with content related vocabulary (i.e. sides, faces, vertex/vertices, etc.)

Strategies to Support Tiered Instruction

• Teacher provides students with a collection of two-dimensional shapes, including triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons as well as some non-examples, to do the following activities in order:
  
  • Begin “Collect and Display” by asking the students to sort the shapes into groups any way they like. Then be prepared to capture the language they use in describing the shapes (i.e. students may create a group that includes squares and rectangles because they all have “corners”). Collect the list of the informal language used here and display it on chart paper next to the shapes being used.
  • Ask the students which words were important to know as they did their sort. As students respond, annotate on the chart paper and shapes to help them make the connection. For example, a student might refer to “corners” as something that helped them create their group of four-sided polygons. Write the formal term next to the student language on the chart to help them make the connection to vocabulary. The teacher might write “vertex” next to the word “corner” in the above example.
  • Keep and display the chart for future activities and remind the students to borrow language from the chart as needed.

• Teacher provides a geoboard for students to use with the following series of activities to help students develop an understanding of specific defining attributes:
  • The teacher may say, “Make a closed shape with three straight sides and three vertices.” or “Make a closed shaped with 5 straight sides and 5 vertices.” Students use the geoboard to create the shape. Teacher can ask questions like, “How did you know to make this shape?” to draw attention to the defining attributes. It may be helpful to have students compare their shapes with other students so they can see that different answers are possible.
  • Example:

• The teacher may call out a defining attribute that the students have been struggling with in class (i.e., “make a two-dimensional figure with three vertices”). After creating a correct figure, the teacher has students rotate the geoboard 90 degrees to see that it is still the same figure.
• Example: 

• If students continue to struggle, the teacher may provide similar instruction from above but limits the amount and types of shapes students build on a geoboard (i.e., only build a square or triangle).

Instructional Tasks

Instructional Task 1 (MTR.4.1) 

• Part A. Partner A uses the figure card to describe a two-dimensional figure. As Partner A describes the figure, Partner B uses the geoboard to construct the figure that is being described. Neither partner should be able to see each other's card or geoboard. 
• Part B. Once Partner B has constructed the figure based on the defining attributes, the partners finish by comparing the figure on the figure card to the figure that was created. Discussion should include language about specific defining attributes. 

Disclaimer: Enrichment Tasks are not intended for assessment but as a way for students to explore ideas that extend past their benchmark.

Enrichment Task 1 

Equally partition a regular hexagon in multiple ways.

Part A. Equally partition a regular octagon in multiple ways.
Part B. Partition a regular octagon into two, four or eight equal parts

 

Instructional Items

Instructional Item 1 

Which word best identifies the figure below? 

• a. Triangle 
• b. Pentagon 
• c. Hexagon 
• d. Square 

 

*The strategies, tasks and items included in the B1G-M are examples and should not be considered comprehensive.

Related Courses

Related Access Points

Related Resources

Student Resources

Parent Resources