Time Required

Pegging Down Area

Time Required

Planning:

Planning for this learning experience took collectively five to six hours. This time included examination of the sixth-grade and seventh-grade math books, mapping out the sequence of presentation of the necessary concepts, collection of needed supplies from the primary grade teachers, creation of the Area Assessment Questions, the Area Rubric, and the Teacher Exemplar.

Implementation:

The implementation of this mini-unit takes place over the course of three days (four days if the extension activity is included). Math is blocked out for 40 minutes each day, for a total of two hours instructional time. Day one reviews the concept of area in general, and specifically addresses area of a square.

Day two connects area of a square to area of a rectangle. Day three relates area of a right triangle to the area of its corresponding rectangle. (Day four is optional; it uses knowledge of area taught in days one through three to determine the area of complex shapes.)

Assessment:

Scoring of student work should take approximately five minutes per student. This includes time to decipher sloppy handwriting and time for the teacher to add clarifying comments to the rubric, if needed.

Schedule:

The Saxon Math series formally presents the concept of area of a square around the middle of the school year in sixth grade. This mini-unit should be implemented after students have some understanding of area (such as area of a square), but can be used to introduce area of a rectangle and area of a triangle. This author originally taught this unit toward the end of sixth grade, to remediate students who were not grasping the concepts as presented in the textbook. Presenting the material at the outset using manipulatives might promote better understanding overall and prevent extra class time being spent reteaching later. As stated in the procedures section, geometry will be stressed more heavily in seventh grade. If students are to be successful with new information (such as area of complex shapes), they need to build a strong base of prior knowledge in sixth grade.

top of page