Understanding By Design Unit Template

Title of Unit
Curriculum Area
Developed By

Symmetry and Transformations

Similarity and Congruence
Heather Wingett

Grade Level
Time Frame

8th Grade Math

March 4th March 18th

Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)

Content Standards
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.1
Verify experimentally the properties of rotations, reflections, and translations:
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.1.a
Lines are taken to lines, and line segments to line segments of the same length.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.1.b
Angles are taken to angles of the same measure.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.1.c
Parallel lines are taken to parallel lines.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.2
Understand that a two-dimensional figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of
rotations, reflections, and translations; given two congruent figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the congruence between them.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.3
Describe the effect of dilations, translations, rotations, and reflections on two-dimensional figures using coordinates.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.4
Understand that a two-dimensional figure is similar to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of rotations,
reflections, translations, and dilations; given two similar two-dimensional figures, describe a sequence that exhibits the similarity
between them.
CCSS.Math.Content.8.G.A.5
Use informal arguments to establish facts about the angle sum and exterior angle of triangles, about the angles created when parallel
lines are cut by a transversal, and the angle-angle criterion for similarity of triangles. For example, arrange three copies of the same
triangle so that the sum of the three angles appears to form a line, and give an argument in terms of transversals why this is so.
Practice
Practice
Practice
Practice
Practice
Practice
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Practice

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8:

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Understandings

Essential Questions

Overarching Understanding
The overarching goal of Butterflies, Pinwheels, and Wallpaper is to
develop student understanding of congruence and similarity of
geometric figures, and the mathematical techniques for finding and
applying those relationships of shapes. The basic idea of congruence is
that two figures have the same shape and size if it is possible to
perform one or more transformations that move one figure onto the
other. The basic idea of similarity is that two figures have the same
shape if it is possible to perform a dilation, and perhaps one or more
rigid motions, to transform one figure onto the other.
The two main topics of this Unit that highlight congruence and
similarity are rigid motions and dilation. Investigations 13 develop and
apply properties of line reflections, rotations, and translations. These
rigid motions are used to transform figures for creating symmetric
designs and to compare the size and shape of congruent figures.
Investigation 4 extends the transformation concept to include dilations
of similar figures.
Related Misconceptions
Using Similarity as a vague term for any two shapes that appear to
have many common features.
Partial understanding of where an internal and external angle are
located on a triangle.
Students noticing the subtractive difference between corresponding
similar side lengths and not the proportional relationship. For instance,
adding or subtracting by the difference instead of using the
proportions.
Confusing supplementary angles with opposite angles, visually and
when calculating missing angle measures.

Overarching
How are congruent objects
related?
How are similar objects
related?
How are congruence and
similarity different?
What is an angle measure?
Why is the sum of the interior
angles of a triangle 180
degrees?

Topical
How can you describe
how points move
under a reflection
with coordinate rules
in the form (x, y)
( , ) when the
reflection line is: (1)
the x-axis? (2) the yaxis? (3) the line y =
x?

What kind of
coordinate rule (x, y)
( , ) tells how to move
any point to its image
under a translation?
What are the
coordinate rules that
describe motion of
points on a grid under
turns of 90 and 180?
When two parallel
lines are cut by a
transversal, what can
be said about the
angles formed? What
is always true about
the angle measures in
a triangle? How do you
know that your
answers are correct?
How can you use
transformations to
check whether two
figures
are similar or not?
What information
about the sides and

Knowledge

angles of two triangles

will guarantee that
they are similar?
What facts about
similar triangles allow
you to find lengths in
very large figures that
you are unable to
reach?

Objectives
Skills

Students will know

Students will be able to

That rigid transformations like flips, turns and slides do not change the
size or shape of the original object.
Two shapes are congruent if they both have equal corresponding side
and angles and if the second can be found by a series of
transformations of the first.
Two objects are similar if corresponding sides are parallel and the ratios
of each corresponding side lengths are proportional.

Apply transformations to an object on a coordinate grid.

Calculate missing angle measures of supplementary angles.
Calculate missing angle measures of interior angles of a
triangle, knowing that the sum is 180 degrees.
Calculate missing angle measures of quadrilaterals knowing
the sum of interior angles is 360 degrees.
Calculate missing angle measures on transverals through
parallel lines using deductive reasoning.
Use transformations to describe a sequence that exhibits the
congruence between figures
Use transformations to explore minimum measurement
conditions for establishing congruence of triangles
Use transformations to explore minimum measurement
conditions for establishing similarity of triangles
Relate properties of angles formed by parallel lines and
transversals, and the angle sum in any triangle, to properties
of transformations
Use properties of congruent and similar triangles to solve
problems about shapes and measurements
Use coordinate rules for basic rigid motion transformations

Congruence and Similarity Understand congruence and similarity and

explore necessary and sufficient conditions for establishing congruent
and similar shapes
Recognize that two figures are congruent if one is derived from the
other one by a sequence of reflection, rotation, and/or translation
transformations
Recognize that two figures are similar if one can be obtained from the
other by a sequence of reflections, rotations, translations, and/or
dilations
Transformations Describe types of transformations that relate points by
the motions of reflections, rotations, and translations, and methods for
identifying and creating symmetric plane figures
Recognize properties of reflection, rotation, and translation
transformations

Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)

Performance Task Description

Goal
Role
Audience
Situation
Product/Performance

Standards

Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the content goals from Investigations 3 & 4
Summative Assessment after Invetigations 3 & 4
Mz. Wingett, Mrs. Levinsohn, Mrs. Milam
Students will have a class period to complete the Unit Test. Students who would like more time can
complete the check up in their Study Skills period, during lunch or after school. Students that would
like the Unit Test read to them can go with Mrs. Milam to another classroom.
Unit Test for Butterflies, Pinwheels and Wallpaper
Practice 1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Practice 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Practice 3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Practice 4: Model with mathematics.
Practice 5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
Practice 6: Attend to precision.
Practice 7: Look for and make use of structure.
Practice 8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Other Evidence
Learning Plan (Stage 3)
Day in Unit
03/09/16

Lesson
Topic
3.1

Lesson Learning
Objective

Description of how
lesson contributes to
unit-level objectives

I can generalize a rule to flip

an object on a coordinate grid.

You might consider launching the

Investigation and this Problem by
asking students what they know
about how animated films are
made. You can make the point
that when this work is done with
computer software, every point,
called a pixel, on the computer
screen has a location and a pair
of coordinates that specifies that
location horizontally and
vertically. Moving a figure is
accomplished by using the rules
for transformations. They can be
more complicated than the flips,
turns, and slides they have

I can look for and use structure

in repeated reasoning.

Assessment activities
Monitoring Student Work
Questioning
ACE Problems 1-3

03/10/16

3.2

I can generalize a rule to slide

an object on a coordinate grid.
I can look for and use structure
in repeated reasoning.

studied so far, but they involve

the same ideas. In this
Investigation, the Problems
develop a basic understanding of
transformations represented as
operations on the coordinates of
points.
This Problem parallels Problem
3.1; however, it focuses on the
coordinate definition and
operation of a translation. The
goal is to develop student
understanding of the general
principle that any translation
takes all points (x,y) to points

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning

(x+a,y+b) for some fixed

parameters a and b.
03/11/16

3.3

I can generalize a rule to turn

an object 90 degrees and 180
degrees on a coordinate grid.
I can look for and use structure
in repeated reasoning.
I can use appropriate tools
strategically.

03/14/16

3.5

I can use properties of parallel

lines and supplementary
angles to find missing angle
measures when two parallel
lines are cut by a transversal.
I can attend to precision.

Expressing the coordinate rules

of rotations generally requires
trigonometric functions;
however, the special cases of 90

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning
ACE Problems 6 & 7

and 180 rotations can be

expressed without advanced
mathematics. The goal of this
Problem is to have students
discover the coordinate rules for
those two special rotations.
The goal of this Problem is to
review and extend your students
understanding of two very useful
geometric propertiesthat
parallel lines cut by a traversal
form various pairs of congruent
angles, and that the angle sum
of any triangle is 180.

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning
Use geogebra to construct
parallel lines cut by transversal
and the rotated triangles. One
ipad per group of 3 to 4 students
passed around. Geogebra can
bring the diagrams in the book to
life and allow students to move it
around. I may make the diagram
in part D and pass that ipad

03/15/16

03/16/16

Review?
ACE
problems

I can identify my strengths and

weaknesses to prioritize how I
prepare for an assessment.

Check Up
2

I can create viable arguments

and critique the reasoning of
others.
I can identify transformations
on a coordinate grid.

Review notation of angles.

I can...Relate properties of
angles formed by parallel lines
and transversals, and the
angle sum in any triangle, to
properties of transformations

03/17/16
day

4.1

I can generalize a rule for

coordinate pairs that dilates an
object so that its image is
similar and corresponding side
lengths are proportional.
I can describe similarity and
congruence.

This Problem reviews what

students have learned about
similarity in a previous Unit,
Stretching and Shrinking. What
they learned is that similar
figures have the same shape but
possibly different size. By using
coordinate rules, students can
check some of their prior
observations about distances
and slopes. This is the fourth
type of transformation students
will learn about, and they will
contrast dilation with the other
transformations.

around to each group also. I may

have groups work on the
problems in different starting
points to stagger the problems
across all the groups.
Monitoring Student Work
Questioning

Assesses flips, turns and slides of

an image on a grid by multiple
choice where every answer is
visible and students have to
identify which image fits which
transformation.
Assesses demonstration of
supplementary angles, and
angles at an intersection of two
straight lines.
Assesses demonstration that
interior angles of a triangle add
up to 180 degrees and the sum
of the interior angles of a
quadrilateral is 360 degrees.
Monitoring Student Work
Questioning

03/18/16
Day
03/21/16

4.1
continued
4.2

Continued
I can prove similarity using
moves and a dilation.
I can use appropriate tools
strategically.

03/22/16

4.3

I can explain why two

congruent corresponding
angles of two triangles are
sufficient to prove similarity.
I can construct viable
arguments and critique the
reasoning of others.

3/23/16

4.4

I can use properties of similar

triangles to calculate heights
using a mirror.
I can make sense of problems
and persevere in solving them.

The goal of this Problem is to

begin developing student
understanding and skill in
working with the idea that similar
figures can be transformed
exactly onto each other by
suitable combinations of flips,
turns, and/or slides and one
dilation.
In the same way that it is
possible to confirm congruence
of triangles without actually
doing the moves of flips, turns,
and/or slides, it is possible to
check similarity of triangles
without doing congruence and
dilation transformations. This
Problem has as its goal the
development of one fundamental
strategy for proving similarity of
trianglesthe Angle-Angle
criterion. This is an explicit
requirement of the Common Core
State Standards for Mathematics
in Grade 8
The goal of this Problem is to
give students insight into the
ways that similar triangles can
be used to solve practical
measurement problems using a
scale model. We use only one
example of the technique that
has been demonstrated in other
contexts in Stretching and
Shrinking. Question C asks
students to collect their own
measurements. This will require
some foresight on the part of the
teacher. You will need to consider
what sites would work well, what
materials will be needed, and

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning
Monitoring Student Work
Questioning

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning

how much time is it will take

3/24/16

Review
Celebrity
correction
s

I can construct viable

arguments and critique the
reasoning of others.
I can attend to precision.

03/25/16

Unit Test

Summative Assessment
I can make sense of problems
and persevere in solving them.

Review notation.
Students will work in groups to
correct tests completed by
various celebrities. They will
explain why answers are
incorrect on a separate grading
sheet.

Monitoring Student Work

Questioning
Formatively check for
understanding of learning goals
for 3 & 4. be explicit in how
students can demonstrate the
learning goals in the Check Up.