Author: Sherry Banack
Hi, my name is Sherry and this is one of the first times I’m writing a blog, and the first time I am using one to describe a mathematical lesson. This lesson was inspired by a course I was enrolled in during obtaining a master’s degree from American College of Education (ACE). I further expanded the lesson to be used in my classroom and though that it went well enough to be shared!
The course was about using new literacies to expand student’s understanding of topics. I teach high school math and thought that using the movie “Toy Story” would be an interesting way to engage students.
This activity was designed to be used during a unit on geometric transformations. Using the story board above, students should work in pairs to describe a possible scene that the story board depicts. Then they should try to describe a different, yet just as plausible, scene. This intro was intended to get the students interested and to invoke some creative thinking on their part in terms of what could be happening. The students would be told that they should refer to the story board scenes with numbers starting at 1 and proceeding left to right to number 9.
Students then need to pick multiple scenes that correspond to different transformations. For example, choose at least 3 scenes that could be represented with a translation. Describe the translation and write a mapping rule to correspond with your description. This would be repeated for reflection, rotation, and glide reflections.
Student feedback was positive and students were engaged throughout the lesson. The students, and myself, enjoyed the creativity and critical thinking this activity required!
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