In my Transformations unit in geometry, I taught translations first. Then, I moved on to reflections and rotations.
My students learn about transformations in middle school, but they use words like “flip”, “turn”, and “slide”. So if I can relate the academic vocabulary to the words they are used to hearing, the lessons go much quicker. Once I reminded students that a “flip” is a reflection, we were ready to start plotting points. We completed this foldable from my TpT store that gives examples for four common types of reflections. The foldable gives the rules, but I also have my students write “count the distance away from the line” under each flap. I give them a rule, because some students like having it, but really they don’t need them for reflections. I also had to remind them about the equation of a vertical and horizontal line and the line y = x looks like. I guess Algebra 1 was too long ago for some of them.
Then, I used this page as practice. I’m less concerned about running out of pages in their notebooks now, so I’m starting to do many more “practice pages”. I wish I would have done this from the beginning!
My rotations pages went so well! First, I had my students complete the vocabulary and notation. Then, we completed the accordion book together. You can find it in my TpT store.
The first example in the accordion book doesn’t use coordinates. I typically use patty paper, but I didn’t buy any this year :( So, I turned the foldable under the document camera instead. It didn’t work as well, but it got the point across. When we moved to the coordinate examples, I told students they could turn their notebooks or follow the rules. I was trying to give them options!
Next, I gave students some graph paper and a table. I saw this page idea from Equation Freak and tweaked it only a little for my students. I had them all draw a quadrilateral in the first quadrant. Then, they were on their own to draw the three rotations and fill in the table. I did not include 360 degree rotations. I feel like it’s redundant. This example was a little easy for my kids, but the bones are there. I may need to tweak it a little bit to make it more appropriate for high school.
The last part of the unit was symmetry and dilations.
