Week at a Glance: August 27, 2012

This week in math, we will continue with Unit 1a: Geometric Transformations. The focus of this week is dilations; however, we will continue to review translations, rotations and reflections as we compare these rigid transformations to non-rigid transformations. Students will use rigid transformations along with dilations to determine if figures are similar.

In addition, students will enhance their understanding of similarity and congruency through the analysis of figures and images. A major idea about that students need to understand is that congruency is a special case of similarity in which the scale factor = 1. Students will have homework nightly and they need to review their notes in preparation for the unit assessment, which is scheduled for Friday, August 31.

Week at A Glance: August 20, 2012

This week in math, we will wrap up the first part of Unit 1A Geometric Transformations. Students will take a test on rigid transformations (translations, rotations and reflections). They will need to be able to identify and perform indicated transformations and explain how they impact the coordinates of the original figure (pre-image). Students in advanced math will take the test on Monday and all other classes will take the test on Tuesday.

By midweek, we will move on to the second part of Unit 1A. In this portion of the unit, students will study dilations, which is another type of geometric transformation. Students will identify, create and analyze dilations of geometric figures. We will also study congruence and similarity in this part of the unit. Students will need to be able to differentiate between transformations that result in images that are congruent to the original and those that result in images that are similar to the original.

Students need to be familiar with the familiar with the following key terms for this unit:

• dilation
• factor
• proportion
• ratio
• congruence
• similarity
• corresponding sides
• corresponding angles
• translation
• rotation
• reflection
• line of symmetry
• line of reflection
• point of rotation
• general form

Week at a Glance: August 13, 2012

This week in math, we will continue with Unit 1A, Geometric Transformations. We will begin the week with a review of the translations quiz that students took on Friday.

We will pick up with rotations. Students will rotate figures (90, 180 and 270 degrees) about the origin (in a coordinate graph) to study the properties of rotations so they can recognize when a figure has been rotated. They will analyze the relationship between the coordinates of the original figure (pre-image) and the image to develop an understanding of the how rotations effect a figure.
*Advanced Content:  Students in advanced math will also rotate figures at degrees other than 90, 180, and 270 and about points other than the origin.

Thereafter, we will explore reflections. Students will reflect figures across the x-axis and y-axis (in a coordinate grid) as well as other horizontal and vertical lines to examine the properties of reflections. They will also investigate reflected images to identify how a reflection effects a figure.
*Advanced Content: Students in advanced math will reflect figures across diagonal lines as well.

This unit utilizes the following pre-requisite skills:

• integer operations 
• graphing in the coordinate plane
• multiplying with fractions

Some students may require practice in some or all of the aforementioned pre-requisite skills to increase their success in this unit.

Students need to be familiar with the following key terms for this unit:

• translation
• rotation
• reflection
• x-axis
• y-axis
• horizontal
• vertical
• clockwise
• counterclockwise
• image
• pre-image
• point of rotation
• point of reflection

Week at a Glance: August 6, 2012

This week in math, we will study properties of geometric transformations. Students will perform transformations in the coordinate to analyze the effect of:

Translations

Reflections

Rotations

Students will have a quiz on Friday.