Which One Doesn't Belong?: A Shapes Book

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This bold-color shapes book is, as the author had hoped, “a resource that can make a meaningful contribution to geometry instruction” (p. 16) but can also reside in an elementary school library. It allows for meaningful conversations, unanswered questions, and deep dives into the subtle and complex similarities and differences between shapes.

The NSW Department of Education is committed to employing the best and brightest teachers who can teach and make a difference in NSW public schools. We started off with the first set of figures and I asked everyone to think silently about which figure didn’t belong. I called on Noah to share his thoughts. Noah chose a figure and explained why that figure was different than the rest.

Even though the book says “every answer can be correct,” my students had a hard time believing that two, three, or four different answers could all be correct. We decided to find out! Another observation I found very interesting was how students borrowed vocabulary from one setting and tried to apply (maybe misapply) it to a new setting. Have you ever heard of a scalene quadrilateral? Neither had I! With your group, decide what the responses for question number 1 have in common. Then do the same for questions numbered 2 and 3.

Below is more text: Then, ask your family, friends or your classmates about the next diagram…see if you can work together to come up with a reason for each collection.]

There’s also an accompanying teacher’s guide, with teaching ideas across the grades from kindergarten to high school. (Look inside the guide here.) What are the favorite colors of students in this class?” would produce categorical data with some variability. I thought the WODB activity might generate some interesting conversations and serve as a review for our geometry unit which we were concluding. So we gave it a try! In the upper right corner of the screen, a green starburst appears with text: Which one doesn’t belong? In the bottom left corner: 4 triangles are joined alternating on their angled sides to form a parallelogram.] Speaker