Geometrical Shapes Low-Tech Communication Board

~~Description ~~ This communication board will be used in the Middle School regular education Math classroom, as well as in the Resource Room. I have designed this communication board to be used by a student with limited verbal communication in the seventh grade. This student also has limited movement with her hands so the communication board pages will be put into a photo album. The stiffer pages will be easier for the student to turn the page. It can also be used with students who just have a real difficult time coming up with the name of the shape or drawing the shape given the name.

This will be used to help the student be a part of the class when we are going through the geometry unit that discusses different types of polygons and their characteristics. The student will be able to point to the word when I give them the characteristics or show them a picture of the polygon. (Polygon will refer to all the different types of polygons on pages 1 and 2 as well as the specific triangles and quadrilaterals listed on the other 4 pages.) The student will have the opportunity to point to the picture given the name of the polygon or the characteristics.

POLYGONS

TYPES OF POLYGONS TRIANGLE QUADRILATERAL PENTAGON HEXAGON OCTAGON DECAGON

Triangles ISOCELES SCALENE EQUILATERAL ACUTE RIGHT OBTUSE

QUADRILATERALS

TYPES OF QUADRILATERALS SQUARE RHOMBUS RECTANGLETRAPEZOID PARALLELOGRAM

Description of how to use I will use this with a student that struggles with verbalizing their answers. The Communication Board will be used in our Geometry unit when we are working on geometrical shapes and their characteristics. Below are examples of how this communication board can be used. Teacher: “Which shape is a triangle?” ▫Student will point to the picture of the triangle. Teacher: “Which shape is a hexagon?” ▫Student will point to the picture of the hexagon. Teacher will go through all the shapes on the page.

W e will then go on to page 2 of the communication board with the teacher giving characteristics and the student pointing to the word. Teacher: “Which shape has five sides?” ▫The student will point to the pentagon. Teacher: “Which shape has four sides?” ▫The student will point to the quadrilateral. The teacher will go through all the shapes using the characteristics of the number of sides in a polygon.

On page 3 the teacher and student will go through the characteristics of different types of triangles with the teacher either showing a picture or stating the specific characteristic and the student pointing to the word of the correct triangle. Teacher: “Which triangle has only two sides of equal length?” ▫The student will point to the word Isosceles. Teacher: “Which triangle has one angle greater than 90°?” ▫The student will point to the word Obtuse.

Page 4 the teacher and student will be working with the teacher giving the name of the triangle and the student choosing the correct picture. Teacher: “Which triangle is a Scalene Triangle?” ▫The student will point to the Scalene triangle. Teacher: “Which triangle is and Equilateral Triangle?” ▫The student will point to the Equilateral triangle. Teacher: “Which triangle has all acute angles?” ▫The student will point to the Equilateral triangle which is also equiangular with all acute angles.

On page 5 the teacher and students will work with different types of quadrilaterals with the teacher asking about particular characteristics or the name of the quadrilateral and the student pointing to the correct picture. Teacher: “Which shape has all four sides equal and has four right angles?” ▫The student will point to the square. Teacher: “Which shape has only one pair of parallel sides?” ▫The student will point to the picture of the trapezoid. Teacher: “Which shape is the rhombus?” ▫The student will point to the picture of the rhombus.

On the last page, page 6, the teacher and students will go through characteristics and pictures with the student pointing to the name of the quadrilateral. Showing the student a picture of the rectangle, Teacher: “What is the name of this quadrilateral?” ▫The student will point to the word rectangle. Teacher: “Which quadrilateral has 2 pairs of parallel sides, but no right angles?” ▫The student will point to the word parallelogram. The teacher and students will continue throughout all the words.

Conclusion The teacher will be able to tell whether the student understands all the characteristics of the different types of polygons, triangles and quadrilaterals the class is studying. The teacher will also know whether the student can name the correct polygon given the picture. The student will have the satisfaction of being a part of the class and the discussions that are going on in the classroom.