ELED 533 Math Methods Emily Smith-George Grade 5 TITLE OF LESSON: Protractor Wedge CONTEXT OF LESSON This lesson

will introduce students to the purpose of a protractor. Students will have previously examined angles and the idea that a unit angle can be used to fill or cover the spread of an angle. LESSON CONCEPTS Angles can be seen as wedges that fill up the turn between two sides or rays. These wedges can be measured using standard as well as nonstandard units. This activity uses childrens literature, homemade paper protractors, and cutouts of angles to investigate how angles are measured using nonstandard units. LESSON OBJECTIVES 1. The students will measure various angles to the nearest wedge. 2. The students will explain why angles with the same wedge size are not really the same size. 3. The students will choose the best wedge protractor to measure these angles. ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING 1. To assess objective one, I will ask each student to create their own protractor and record the wedge number they measure for each angle. I will collect and read the students measurements. Their responses will be recorded. 2. To assess objective two, students will answer the questions: Which angles have the same measurement in wedges? Are they really the same size? Why do they measure the same? Their responses will be recorded. 3. To assess objective three, the students will choose which protractor was the best at measuring these angles and explain their reasoning.

LESSON CONCEPTS What do you want the students to learn as a result of this activity? Concept 1: Angles can be seen as wedges that fill up the turn between two sides or rays. Concept 2: Angles, like other forms of measurement, can be measured using standard units as well as nonstandard units.
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LESSON OBJECTIVES How will the students demonstrate understanding of the concept? The students will: 1. measure various angles to the nearest wedge. 2. explain why angles with the same wedge size are not really the same size. 3. choose the best wedge protractor to measure these angles.

PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT How will you assess student learning of the concept? (Attach a copy of the data collection instrument to this document.) Assessment for objective: 1. I will ask each students to record the wedge number they measure, with the various protractors, for each angle. 2. Students will answer specific questions. 3. The students will choose which protractor was the best at measuring these
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angles and explain their reasoning. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING: 5.11 The student will measure right, acute, obtuse, and straight angles. MATERIALS NEEDED Copies of blackline masters Proctors and Whats Your Angle? for each student A sheet of blank paper for each student Copies or transparencies of the following blackline masters: 8-Wedge Protractor, 16-Wedge Protractor, 10-Wedge Protractor, 20-Wedge Protractor, and 40Wedge Protractor Hamster Champs by Murphy Article Reaction I chose this article because I was curious what other ways students can practice their concept of angles outside of worksheets. I have not seen many examples, in practicum or in my own experience, where angles are presented as anything other than a worksheet problem to be solved with a protractor. This article was geared more toward middle school, which limits its relevance for my future classroom. However, it did provide valuable information. First it presented the problem: many students view angles as nothing more than an object with degrees. The purpose of this article was to demonstrate that, As one sixth-grade student put it, An angle is a lot more than just degree (Browning, Garza-Kling, & Sundling, 283). A one-week unit on angles was presented that focused on student exploration. This unit consisted of three main activities. The first was a wedge activity that was similar to the lesson I have written. This lesson differed because rather than instructing the students on how to make their protractor, this activity was about the students creating their own way to measure angles. This used the same idea of nonstandard units, however it gave more freedom meaning it fell even more into the problem-solving category of NCTM process standards. Although this activity would stress problem-solving to a much greater extent, it is more appropriate for older grades who posses more prior knowledge in regards to angle and angle measurement. Next this unit explored angles by using two different applications on TI calculators, both of which emphasis that an angle is a representation of a turn. These activities would be hard to reproduce without the same applications; however, it was helpful to see a new way to practice with angles. Technology is a great way to introduce angles in a new way. ANTICIPATION OF STUDENTS MATHEMATICAL RESPONSES TO THE TASK(S) POSED ARE EMBEDDED IN THE PROCEDURES. PROCEDURE Before These students have begun to study angles. Today we are looking at measuring angles using nonstandard units in order to help students understand that the measure of an angle is the amount of turn needed to fill up the space between the sides of an angle. Prior to this lesson we will have discussed the length of the sides of angles. Today we will review this point as well as the definition of an angle. The students will also already know how to sort angles into obtuse and acute. We will review this idea today as well. Who can tell me what an angle is? (Possible student answers may include: a corner, two rays and a vertex, a degree measure, or the space between two rays).
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Today we are going to use a tool we make to help us measure angles. Now remember that when measuring angles the lengths of the sides are not important. (We would have explored this in a prior lesson by placing angles of the same size but with different length rays on top of each other to see that the size between the rays that needed to be filled was the same. Also, by filling these angles with a standard unit such as a pattern block to show that they will be filled by the same amount of pattern blocks.) During Question 1: Where can you see angles around the room? Possible student answers The hands on a clock. The desk leg and table. Teacher follow-up questions What size angle do you think these hands are making? Thats a good benchmark angle. What size is that? What polygons do we know have that size angle? What other things around the room have this same angle?

Now lets all make a right angle with our arms. Now what would half of a right angle look like? Show me with your arms. Now what would half of that look like? These are just estimates but its good to keep these in mind when we look at different angles. I will now pass out Whats Your Angle and have students cut out the angles along the line. These are the angles we are going to measure. You are going to cut these out and then the first thing I want you to do is sort them into acute and obtuse. I will walk around and observe everyones sort. Question 2: How did you sort your triangles? Which ones are obtuse and which are acute? Possible student answers Teacher follow-up questions Angle A and B are acute. How do you know? Angle D is obtuse. Did you compare that angle to anything to decide that it was obtuse? Angle C is obtuse. Angle C is a little harder to tell but if you compared that to the corner of your paper what do you see? Students will now use the provided directions to create their protractors. I will circle around the room to help students along the way. They will fold their paper hamburger style twice and then fold the paper down do the angle is cut in half. We are folding the paper so that it divides the angle in half. Does anyone know the big fancy math term that means cutting an angle in half? The detailed directions are as follows: 1. Take your plain sheet of computer paper and fold it in half hamburger style. 2. Now fold it in half again hamburger style. 3. Once everyone has those two folds done the next step is a little tricky so everyone listen carefully. You are going to take the upper right hand corner and fold it down to the left until you line the top of the paper with the left side. This time instead of folding the sheet of paper in half we are going to fold the paper so the angle is divided in half. Watch as I do it. 4. Now unfold your paper.
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Does everyone see where the center of this sheet of paper is? Question 3: How many wedges (these are our wedges-point to them on paper) does it take to make a complete turn around that center point? Possible student answers 8 wedges 4 wedges Teacher follow-up questions How did you decide on 8 wedges? What did you count to get 4? Remember we are looking at all these wedges that are created by the creases in the paper.

The creases should form eight wedges. Even though the shapes might look different the angles are still the same. I will now demonstrate how to measure using this protractor on the overhead. They need to align the point of the angle they are measuring with the point of the wedge (that center point). Next they need to line one of the angles rays with a side of a wedge. I like to use the far right wedge on the top half of the paper to line mine up. Once their angle is lined up they count how many wedges are used to fill the angle. I will explain that I want them to measure to the nearest wedge. Question 4: What do I mean when I ask you to measure to the nearest wedge? Think about what I mean when I ask you to measure to the nearest whole number. Possible student answers That you have to round. If it is not a whole wedge we have to decide if it over half or less than half. Pick the closest wedge. Teacher follow-up questions What are you rounding? And what happens if it is over half of a wedge? We are not picking a wedge, but counting the wedges. If my angle was 4 and a half wedges what would I round that to?

Once the students have had the opportunity to explore the wedges and record their measurements we will discuss question 3 as a class. Question 5: Which angles have the same measurement in wedges? Possible student answers Angles A and B Angles C and D Teacher follow-up questions Do you think these should be the same size? Why are they? Why did these angles measure the same? By looking at them do you think they are the same size? How many wedges did you get for these angles? How did you line up your angles with the wedges? Lets take a look at these too again.

Angle A and Angle D

Question 6: What can we do to fix the problem of angles that look different having the same measurement in wedges?
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Possible student answers Use smaller units of measurement. Be more precise instead of rounding to the nearest wedge.

Teacher follow-up questions How can we make these wedges smaller units? What could you round to instead of rounding to the nearest wedge?

Now each group will work with a transparency of the 16- wedge protractor and record their new measurements in nearest whole miniwedges. We will go over question 5 together as we did question 3. This question is based on the same idea that if our measurement tool is not precise or small enough angles that have different sizes can measure the same. We will continue to measure with a 10, 20, and 40 wedge protractor. A pattern should start to emerge. Question 7: Does anyone see a pattern when they look at their measurements? Possible student answers The measures with the 10-wedge are half of the 20wedge. The measures with the 40-wedge are double that of the 10-wedge. Teacher follow-up questions Why is that? Why do you think the 10-wedge would have measurements that are half as much as the 20? Can you explain why that pattern exists?

After Now I will introduce the idea of our standard units of degrees measured with a protractor. So when we are looking for the best tool to measure angles what should we look for? (One with a small, precise, unit of measurement). This is why we use a protractor. A protractor has 180 little wedges, that we call degrees, so it is even more precise than the 40-wedge protractor we used, but it works the same way we want to line it up and see how many of those wedges will fill in the angle between the two rays. Now we are going to read the book Hamster Champs. In this book hamsters measure angles so they can build ramps that will let them fly high and so they can outsmart the cat. They measure their angles using a protractor so they talk about how many degrees are in each angle instead of wedges. MODIFICATIONS CHALLENGE problem: If students quickly finish measuring all of the angles using their wedge protractors and need a challenge I will ask them to create their own way to measure angles. Using any math manipulative found in the room, paper, or other supplies (that they ask permission to use) they will create another way that these 4 angles can be measured. That might mean folding the paper in a new way so that they create different size wedges than we have used, or using something such as pattern blocks to fill in each angle. I will remind them that in order for their protractor to be successful each wedge must be the same size. If there is time at the end of class I will have these students share their new protractors. REMEDIAL problem: For the students who are struggling with this lesson, I will provide additional support. First, if they are unable to fold their 8-wedge protractor I will provide them with one that has already been folded. If they are having trouble measuring the four angles with the various wedge protractors than I will provide them with a new task:
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I will give the students a circle. The students will be instructed to cut a wedge from his or her circle. I will ask them to describe the wedge they just created (Does it look like a right angle, an acute angle, or an obtuse angle?) I will tell the students they will be using the wedge they created to measure the four angles. I will provide them with a student-recording sheet for their measurements. Again they will be asked to measure to the nearest wedge. I will give them a few minutes to determine a method for using the wedge they created to measure the angle. I will pay close attention to students who created large wedges because they may not be able to measure the angle they drew. I will encourage these students to make their wedges smaller and to try again. I will help students do the following as they are measuring the angles with their wedges: line up the point of their wedge with the vertex of the angle, make sure they are not over-lapping the wedges too much as they are measuring, line up the straight side of the wedge with the side of the angle they are measuring. While recording all 4 measurements I will encourage students to use the term wedge when reporting their measurements. If students successful fill in their angles to find the wedge measurement I will ask them: What did you like about using your wedges to measure angles? What did you not like about using your wedges? Once they have finished if there is still time I will encourage them to cut a different size wedge and measure using that. Then I will ask them questions like: Why were your measurements different? Was one set always bigger then the other? Why do you think that is? (I think that these will be easier for the students because in a previous lesson we will have filled in angles with pattern blocks so this is a similar technique using a wedge that they cut to repeatedly fill up an angle.)

SMART BOARD Classifying Triangles from SMART Exchange (http://exchange.smarttech.com/). The objective of this Smart Board activity is to review how angles are classified (acute, right, and obtuse). Students will also begin to explore the relationship between the size of angles (visually) and their measurement in degrees. They will use a protractor to find the measurement of angles. This is helpful because I can control students first couple experiences with a protractor by viewing them do it on the board, big, so that I can make sure they are looking at the right numbers and lining up the protractor correctly. I would use this lesson after our wedge lesson as we transition from the nonstandard wedges to the standard unit of measurement for angles: degrees. Full url: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=33a2ba29-5194-4c2c-b0fc-b729869e9e9f VISUAL REPRESENTATION I will use the pictures of hamsters measuring using protractors in the book we read aloud to create a bulletin board that not only showcases some benchmark measurements for future estimations, but also, is a visual of how the students should use their protractor when measuring.
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NCTM PROCCESS STANDARDS Problem SolvingStudents are encouraged to problem solve when they are presented with the question, What can we do to fix the problem of angles that look different having the same measurement in wedges? They have to brainstorm how they can make their measurement more precise. CommunicationStudents use communication skills as they collaborate with their group while using the 10, 20, and 40 wedge protractors. They will also have to successfully express their ideas, regarding the patterns that emerged, to the class. Students are also asked to explain how they know which angles are acute and obtuse verbally. This lesson provides questions that encourage students to communicate with their peers as well as the whole class in regards to their geometric thought. ConnectionsStudents make connections between angles and their surroundings (chair leg and table, clock hands, corner of a paper). Students connect these new ideas about measuring angles to what they have previously learned about measurement itself. For example that it is not exact and that measuring with smaller units gives a more precise answer. Students also connect what they know about rounding in order to round to the nearest wedge. RepresentationStudents create, and are later given, a representation of a protractor. It operates using the same ideas and principles, but its appearance is different. Students sort angles based on their physical properties. REFERENCES Browning, C.A., Garza-King, G., & Sundling, E. (2007). Whats your angle on angles?. Teaching Children Mathematics, 14(5), 283-287. Classifying angles. Retrieved from: http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=33a2ba29-5194-4c2cb0fc-b729869e9e9f Murphy, S. J. (2005). Hamster champs. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

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