Design Topic: Geometric Shapes and Area

Subject: Math

Grade: 6

Student: Marcus

STAGE 1 DESIRED RESULTS

Unit Title: Measuring Area, Surface Area, and Volume
Established Goals: (1-2 goals [standards] for your five lesson unit)
Iowa Core Standards:
th
6 Grade Mathematics Geometry:
Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume:

Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or
decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world mathematical
problems (6.G.A.1)

Draw polygons in the coordinate plan 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 mathematical problems (6.G.A.3)
Social Skills Standards that will also be addressed in lesson:

Communicate and work productively with others, considering different perspectives, and cultural views to increase the
quality of work. Work appropriately and productively with others (21.6-8.ES.1)
Understandings:

Students will understand the difference between

geometric shapes: squares, circles, triangles, etc. and
what characteristics are needed to constitute each shape
Students will understand that shapes can vary in size
and area
Students will understand the difference between area
and surface area; surface area is the area of each side
added together.

Students will know:

Students will know and apply the mathematic equation of

surface area
Students will know and apply the mathematic equations
of area of a triangle, rectangle, square, and circle.
Students will know how to use a protractor and ruler
properly and accurately.
Students will know how to draw a shape on a coordinate
plane to scale.
Students will be able to reflect and shift shapes across
points and lines on a coordinate plane.

Essential Questions: (overarching)

How do different geometric shapes compare and

contrast?
What does the surface area of an object tell us about the
shape?
Why is it important to be able to accurately measure the
area and surface area of objects?
Why are some shapes better intended for some
purposes? (e.g. support beams are rectangular, globes
are spheres, etc.)

Students will be able to: (performance tasks)

Students will be able to use mathematic instruments like

a protractor and ruler to measure geometric shapes
accurately
Students will be able to identify shapes by their defining
characteristics (number of sides, angles, etc.)
Students will be able to use their measurements to find
the area of the shape
Students will be able to state the mathematic equations
for surface area, and area of rectangles, squares, circles,
and triangles.
Students will demonstrate their understanding of
geometric figures by drawing on a coordinate plane.
Students will work together in small groups and
collaborate and communicate affectively.

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005); REVISED TEMPLATE

Design Topic: Geometric Shapes and Area

Subject: Math

Grade: 6

Student: Marcus

STAGE 2 ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

Other Evidence: What will students do through the unit to
Performance Tasks: What will students do through the unit
demonstrate their knowledge?
in order to demonstrate their skills?

Describe four shapes: square, rectangle, circle, and

triangle by their sides and angles, record information.
Support their understanding of length and angles with
their own measurements.
Calculate the area and surface area of designated
objects in the classroom.
Communicate with their peers in whole class and small
group discussions.
Apply their knowledge individually when completing
homework assessments.

Follow teachers modeling and explicit, direct instruction

Collaborate in whole class discussions and small group
and partner work
Apply understanding when measuring the surface area of
objects in the classroom
Answer teachers guiding and follow-up questions
Complete homework and additional teacher
assessments

STAGE 3 LEARNING PLAN (Unit Plan)

Summary of Learning Activities: For each day, what do you plan to do in order to bring students to the point of being able to
answer the essential questions by the end of the unit? How will you guide students toward being able to demonstrate the key
understandings by the end of the unit?
Day 1:
1. Tell students we will be doing a unit on geometric shapes, measurement, and area. In this unit, we will be measuring
different shapes by length, angle, and size and comparing and contrasting shapes by these characteristics.
2. Lead a whole-class introductory discussion about geometric shapes. (Rationale: Helps teacher gauge students prior
knowledge). Create flow-chart on whiteboard. Students need not take notes. Possible discussion questions to ask:
What do you know about a circle, square, and triangle?
What are some additional shapes you know?
Do shapes vary in size?
Can the angles of shapes change between same-shape objects?
Why do we use some shapes for particular purposes? E.g. why are wheels round?
3. Introduce students to basic ways to describe geometric shapes. We can describe shapes by their sides and angles.
Teacher draws a triangle and rectangle on the board, asks students how many sides and angles each shape contains.
Is this true from all triangles and rectangles? So is this a defining characteristic?
4. Class activity in pairs: You have 10 minutes with a partner to identify as many geometric shapes as you can find in the
classroom. Note your findings in your notebook.
5. Class discussion about activity.
What were some of the shapes you and your partner found?
Were there shapes that others found that you didnt?
Are there some shapes in the classroom that do not fit into the shapes we have already identified in class
(square, circle, rectangle)?
6. Pass out a list of the names of shapes depending on number of sides for shapes 3-12. (3=triangle, 4=quadrilateral,
5=pentagon, 6=hexagon, 7=heptagon, 8=octagon, 9=nonagon, 10=decagon, 11=undecagon, 12=dodecagon). Ask
students to look at this list for homework tonight.

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005); REVISED TEMPLATE

Design Topic: Geometric Shapes and Area

Subject: Math

Grade: 6

Student: Marcus

Day 2:
1. Ask students if they have questions from anything covered yesterday or from the list of shapes given at the end of
yesterdays class.
2. Tell students that today in class they will be measuring shapes in an activity with a partner.
3. Pairs of students will be given dozens of objects of varying shape and size. Students are measure the length of the sides
of each shape (in cm) and record in their notebooks. Students should round their measurements to the nearest tenth for
the purposes of this activity.
4. Have a brief discussion about note taking skills:
Make a table on the board for students to copy in their notebook.
Across the top row of the table should be the following categories: shape, description, number of sides, length of
each side, and illustration. Down the first column should be objects 1, 2, 3, 4,
This table provides an idea for helping students organize their findings. However, if students do not want to use the
table that is okay, as long as their notes include all of the above information.
5. Give students 20 minutes to complete activity with a partner. Each student should take their own notes while they are
working in pairs. Teacher walks around and discusses with pairs of students while they are working.
6. Concluding class discussion: Ask students to share some of their findings with the class.
Day 3:
1. Ask students if there are any questions from anything covered in the unit thus far.
2. Tell students that today they are going to be learning about how to graph the size of their objects from yesterday on a
coordinate plane. Ask students if they have heard of a coordinate plane before.
3. Teacher draws a coordinate plane on the board with labels of x and y-axis and units. [Modeling]
4. Teacher draws a rectangle next to the coordinate plane on board, with side lengths of 3cm and 5cm.
5. By counting units on the coordinate plane, the teacher draws the rectangle to scale on the coordinate plane board.
6. Teacher repeats above process for triangles.
7. Ask for questions.
8. Tell students to draw each of their triangular, rectangular, or square objects on coordinate planes. Challenge the students
to draw each of their shapes on one large coordinate plane with little, if any, spaces between. Each shape should be to
scale. (Rationale: This will require computation skills and will help students see the relationships between sizes of shapes
visually.)
9. Tell students they will be drawing their circular objects on coordinate planes later in the unit, since measuring a circle
involves finding its radius, which is difficult in this activity since it hard to measure the radius of circular spheres that exist
in the classroom. They can leave out these objects for now.
10. Ask students if there were any questions from todays activity.
Day 4:
1. Introduce the concept of area to students.
2. Since students already measured the length of their objects, they are also able to find their area.
3. Give students the formulas for finding the area of squares, rectangles, and triangles. (Area of a square = B x H, area of a
triangle = (B x H), area of a square = B x H). Write these formulas on the board.
4. With their partner, they are to add another column to their notebooks. They should know find the area of each triangle,
square, and rectangle they found. Students will be given 5-10 minutes.
5. Introduce and discuss the concept of surface area for measuring three-dimensional figures. Surface area = area of each
side of shape added together. Have a whole class discussion about the similarities between area and surface area on the
board. Create a Venn diagram of students thoughts on board. Students can copy Venn diagram into their notebooks.
6. Pass out surface area worksheet for homework. (*See link below)
Day 5:
1. Today, students will be furthering their knowledge about graphing shapes on a coordinate plane.
2. Have a discussion about everything students already learned about the coordinate plane and if there are any residual
questions.
3. Students will now learn how to reflect shapes over the x and y-axis of the coordinate plane, while keeping them
unchanged in terms of size, shape, scale, and angles.
4. Teacher provides model of reflecting rectangle over x-axis on whiteboard.
5. Teacher provides modeling of reflecting a triangle over y-axis on whiteboard.
6. Teacher provides modeling of reflecting a circle over the line x = 7 on whiteboard.
7. Students are given 5 problems of reflecting.
8. Repeats the steps #4-7 for shifting shapes in a coordinate plane (i.e. sliding the shape, not its reflection.)
9. Have students come together and describe what happens to shapes when you reflect them in a coordinate plane versus
shift them. When shapes are reflected, you graph the shapes inverse on the other side.
10. Pass out worksheet for homework. (*See link below)
Rationale & Resources:
I decided to conduct a math lesson because that seemed to be one of Marcus weaker subjects. While Marcus does rather
well in all of academic subjects, he was described as being a bit stronger in language arts, science and social studies. By
Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005); REVISED TEMPLATE

Design Topic: Geometric Shapes and Area

Subject: Math

Grade: 6

Student: Marcus

focusing on one of Marcus weaker subjects, I am targeting the skills and subjects where Marcus needs more work. I also
included plenty of collaborative and partner work throughout the unit. This was intentional to work on Marcus social and
communication skills. Marcus will be expected to discuss with his partners and peers respectfully. Marcus will be reminded of
respectful classroom discussion components and how do collaborate with peers effectively. Additionally, the homework
worksheets given on days three and four were selected because they have some fantastical components. The worksheets
have dinosaurs and animations that guide the students through the necessary steps. I found these worksheets online from
another teacher. I would use these worksheets as inspiration and make my own to give to Marcus if he were my student.
Idea for surface area worksheets (days 4 & 5):
http://www.sharemylesson.com/teaching-resource/surface-area-of-a-rectangular-prism-day-1-of-2-50009338/

Source: Understanding by Design, Unit Design Planning Template (Wiggins/McTighe 2005); REVISED TEMPLATE