Student Actions

Teacher Actions

• Develop a productive mathematical disposition by looking for, identifying and analyzing quadrilaterals in a variety of contexts (real-world, manipulative, pictorial, etc.). 

• Develop a deep and flexible conceptual understanding of a variety of quadrilaterals, their attributes, and the relationships between them.

• Develop the ability to make conjectures, model, and generalize about quadrilaterals by classifying them and justifying their classification choices.

• Develop the ability to communicate mathematically by discussing, explaining and writing about their reasoning.

• Use and connect mathematical representations, including manipulatives, drawings, and computer models to represent quadrilaterals

• Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving by focusing more on the properties of figures rather than on simple identification.

• Support productive struggle in learning mathematics by challenging students with questions that involve reasoning, such as “Why?”, “Is that true about all rectangles?”, etc., and asking students to justify their thinking. 

Key Understandings

Misconceptions

• Quadrilaterals possess specific geometric attributes, and are compared and classified based on these attributes.

• Analysis and description of quadrilaterals is based on prior understandings about angles and parallel and perpendicular lines.

• Quadrilaterals are found in various contexts, including real-world and mathematical examples.

• Figures can be described by only one name and can only be classified one way.

• If you change the orientation of the quadrilateral, its properties and name change. 

• Terms for 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures are interchangeable.