Day 77: Triangles, Parallelograms, and Rectangles Combined

6th Grade Math Standards: 6.G.3 Draw polygons in the coordinate plane given coordinates for the vertices; use coordinates to find the length of a side joining points with the same first coordinate or the same second coordinate. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.

The Learning Objective: Differentiate the formulas of triangles, rectangles and parallelograms

Quote of the Day: “Regarding people that had been in love and been hurt, People with the fixed mindset, their number one goal came through loud and clear: Revenge. ‘If I had to choose between me being happy and him being miserable, I would definitely want him to be miserable. For people with the growth mindset, their stories say it all. My cousin Cathy embodies the growth mindset. Several year ago, after twenty-three years of marriage her husband left her. Then, to add insult to injury, she was in an accident and hurt her leg. There she sat, home alone one Saturday night, when she said to herself, ‘I’m not going to sit here and feel sorry for myself!’ Out she went to a dance (leg and all) where she met her future husband.” – Carol Dweck

Question from Yesterday (as always from a student): "When finding the area of a triangle do we divide the base and the height by two?"
"Would it be ok if we write the two before the unit?"
"What happens when you subtract feet squared by feet?"
"Can you have a negative square root?"

Assessment: I circumvented the room as students worked in partners trying to find the base, height, and formula of triangles, parallelograms, and rectangles.

Agenda:

1. What doesn't belong? 
2. Collect the WQ #12
3. Quote, Star Student, Question
4. Homework Review & Pepper
5. Define what shape goes with what formula
6. More practice with a combination of shapes
7. Pass out WQ #13 if time allows

Glass-Half Full: I'm asking students more and more to tell me if a base, height, perimeter, and area  is given in feet or feet squared. They are starting to memorize (although not reason) what unit belongs with area and what does not.

The other positive was the fifth part of the agenda. Getting the shape to match the formula and finding the base and height are what I'm teaching currently more than multiplication. It was good to have students skip finding the actual area because it enabled there to be a higher focus and more practice on the essential skills of getting the base and height as well as the appropriate formula.

Regrets: What doesn't belong takes too long as interesting as it is. I needed a shorter warm up today to get to the sixth part of the agenda.

Link of the Day: Andy Stadel made some nice tweaks to the Super Bear 3-Act Math problem from Dan Meyer.