Wednesday, March 17, 2010
What's My Rule
In the midst of our lesson on the characteristics of quadrilaterals, I used the activity given to us my Margie Mason "What's My Rule." Prior to this activity, we had discussed the characteristics of the different quadrilaterals on which they are to be tested. With some familiarity of the characteristics, the students in pairs categorized their shapes in an attempt to stump the rest of the class with a rule. In my directions, I gave them an example of different shapes that all had four congruent sides. They were asked to go more specific using sides, angles, and/or names. Some of the rules students came upon where: four right angles, but not all sides congruent, at least one right angle, irregular shapes, and no sides congruent. This activity deepened their understanding of quadrilaterals and proved to them that a square is always a rectangle, a parallelogram, and a rhombus even though not all of those shapes are always a square. So when I review characteristics of quadrilaterals, I ask, "What's My Rule."
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I also used this activity with my students. It really deepened their understanding of not only quadrilaterals but angles and angle measurements. It helped them to better understand congruency and the similarities/differences between a rectangle and a square. I also gave them a true and false question set at the end of the activity to assess their understanding.
ReplyDeleteI used this strategy when I taught quadrilaterals to my students. It worked well and I found my students really enjoyed trying to outsmart their peers on the rules they made up. I gave them the quadrilaterals cut out of tagboard. This allowed them to manipulate them as well. This was especially helpful with my inclusion class as they are very tactile students. By being able to move the quads around they could get a better grasp on their classifying rule because they could compare the quads easier.
ReplyDeletePatty Ptucha