Lesson 6

Compare and Describe Angles

Lesson Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for students to consider ways to compare angles and describe the size of angles.

Lesson Narrative

In previous lessons, students identified and described lines, line segments, rays, and angles in geometric and real-world contexts. The purpose of the exploratory work in this lesson is for students to make sense of which attributes define an angle (rays at a common endpoint) and which attributes do not (length of the line segments). The activities in the lesson intentionally elicit students’ ideas for how to describe an angle’s size.

Throughout the lesson, monitor for the ways students distinguish visible line segments from the rays that compose the angles and the language they use to describe the size of angles.

Learning Goals

Teacher Facing

  • Compare angles in ways that make sense to students.
  • Reason about how to describe the size of angles.

Student Facing

  • Let’s think about how to compare and describe angles.

Required Materials

Materials to Gather

Materials to Copy

  • Card Sort: Angles

Required Preparation

Activity 1:

  • Create one set of cards from the blackline master for each group of 2 students.

CCSS Standards

Addressing

Building Towards

Lesson Timeline

Warm-up 10 min
Activity 1 20 min
Activity 2 15 min
Lesson Synthesis 10 min
Cool-down 5 min

Teacher Reflection Questions

In today’s lesson, students had the opportunity to compare angles using the language that makes sense to them. What language did they use to describe the size of angles? How can you build on this language in the next lesson when the size of an angle is described as a turn from one ray from the other? 

Suggested Centers

  • Compare (1–5), Stage 5: Fractions (Supporting)
  • Target Measurements (2–5), Stage 4: Degrees (Addressing)

Print Formatted Materials

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Student Task Statements pdf docx
Lesson Cover Page pdf docx
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Teacher Guide Log In
Teacher Presentation Materials pdf docx
Blackline Masters zip

Additional Resources

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