Guess My Name?

In this week’s lesson we explored geometric thinking and concepts. Learning about familiarizing students with certain terms and concepts such as, “similar versus congruent.” We began the class by being handed a shape, and students had to form groups with members that all had similar shapes. Through use of inquiry, students and teachers discussed why certain group members in the same group had congruent shapes versus similar shapes. I found this activity as a great way for students to get up and become active in the classroom, ask questions and inquire about what makes their shapes similar and what makes their shapes congruent. Students can retain concepts better when the learning process is engaging, interactive and fun. I learned that in order to understand geometric concepts, students must be able to touch, feel and move around objects through use of manipulatives.

Exploring Simlar versus Congruent
(Khalid, N © 2016)

The van Hiele levels of geometric thought is a theory which depicts the five-levels of processing that individuals use in making sense of geometric concepts. These levels include visualization, making sense of what images look like. Analysis is being able to identify the various classes of shapes through their properties. Informal deduction is being able to understand relationships between properties of geometric shapes. Deduction and rigour are level 3 and 4 geometric thinking that extends from high school and beyond. Advancing through the various stages requires students to gain enough geometric experience through various forms of interactive and engaging lessons.

When we were working on activities using tangrams, it was very helpful for me to have the tangram pieces in order to create the shapes and then answer the question. Students that have a hard time visualizing geometric concepts mentally can use manipulatives to ease their learning process. Using manipulatives in this strand of math is imperative for students at all levels of learning. Since this strand of math is highly focused on students being able to touch and feel the shapes, the use of manipulatives is an asset to all learners. Also to create a learning environment that is as physical as possible.

Using tangrams to answer question
(Khalid, N © 2016)

I was very excited to learn this week about all the ways there are to teach this strand of math. One creative way is through the use of literature. Student engagement is the key to their success, and I feel that students feel captivated when stories are read to them, especially at the junior level. Knowing that there are many pieces of literature that relate to various strands of math, teachers can find comfort in knowing they can be creative in their teaching methods. Books allow students to relate concepts they either learned or are about to learn, making this form of learning easier to understand. Whereas direct instruction causes some students that are unable to engage in the learning process to tune-out. This week we read, “The Greedy Triangle,” through YouTube, which is a great way of adding technology into the classroom.