Dance Dance Transversal Lesson Plan

Big idea of the

lesson or
mathematical
concept:
Specific Learning
Outcomes:

Roy Herpin III

This lesson will give the students advanced practice on

permutations and combinations in review for their final exam.

By the end of this lesson students will be able to:

Correctly identify congruent angle pairs in any given diagram with
two parallel lines cut by a transversal
Correctly identify supplementary angles in the above context
Understand what it means for angles to be supplementary
Understand angle congruence
Use supplementary and congruent angle rules to solve for unknown
angles

Standards the
lesson addresses

What definitions,
concepts, or
ideas do students
need to know in
order to begin to
work on the
task?
What
misconceptions
might students
have? What
errors might
students make?
What might be
problematic for
students? What
might you do to
address this?
How will you
introduce
students to the
activity so as not
to reduce the

Students need to understand and be able to apply:

How to measure angles
Basic knowledge and practice with angles (addition, what they are,
etc.)
Parallel lines

Students might confuse which angles are congruent when they cut
and paste them (they could either use incorrect angles or just say
theyre close so theyre pretty much the same)
Students might confuse between congruent and supplementary
Students might take a long time finding the correct congruencies
because they might go through every single angle multiple times to
double check and they may not see a pattern

I will introduce the students to the session by letting them know

that we are going to do some exploratory learning where they are
going to find the answers and if they get it right and work well we
will play a game and have a competition.

Dance Dance Transversal Lesson Plan

Roy Herpin III

demands of the
task? What will
you hear that lets
you know
students
understand the
task? How will
you engage the
students in the
lesson?
What questions
will you ask
How could you possibly know that any two angles are congruent?
students who are What does it mean to be congruent?
struggling?
What does it mean to be supplementary?
How can you tell if two angles are supplementary?
Does it matter which side of the cutout you use? Why or why not?
What questions
will you ask
students who are
getting it?

What patterns do you notice about the congruencies?

Does it matter that the lines are parallel or not? How/Why does
that make a difference?
How many angles do you need to know to find every angle?

Learning Activities (in order)

To start off, the students will be split into groups and given two worksheets both with
two identical sets of lines cut by a transversal. The first will be two non-parallel lines,
and the second will be parallel. *If need be this lesson can be done efficiently with only
the parallel set.
The students will cut out one of the sets of angles and use those cut-outs to find
congruent and supplementary angle pairs in the matching diagram. Next, the students
will do the same for the parallel lines.
The students will share their answers with the whole class and come up with an agreed
upon set of congruent and supplementary pairs of angles. The teacher will give the
appropriate names to the corresponding pairs; vertical angles, corresponding angles,
alternate interior angles, same side interior angles, alternate exterior angles, etc.
Next, the students will complete a few practice problems in which they will use the
appropriate congruencies to find all angles in a diagram.
Next the students will get their own personal space in the classroom with enough room
to dance. They will create their dance floor which will be their own set of parallel lines

Dance Dance Transversal Lesson Plan

Roy Herpin III

cut by a transversal. The DDT videos are similar to DDR in that they have moves along
the bottom of the screen that scroll up to music and are to be executed as they pass
through the box at the top of the screen.
Students will use the above congruent and supplementary angle pairs like vertical angles
in place of left, right, etc. dance moves like in the traditional DDR game.
Play the game with the students, record, and enjoy! Invite students in to play as they
walk by the class!
Resources needed / used
Paper and pencil
Scissors (at least 1 per group)
Parallel lines cut by a transversal diagram (at least 2 per group)
Projector or TV screen with the ability to connect to computer monitor
Computer/Laptop and speakers or ability to play sound from videos
Dance Dance Transversal Videos
Large pieces of paper, markers, and tape (big enough to create a personal dance space)
OR cement floors able to draw on with chalk (and chalk)
Assessment Tasks
and Criteria:
Students will be assessed while they are finding the angle pairs,
during group discussion, and most importantly while playing the
game because this will allow the teachers to test students implicit
understanding to see if they truly get it rather than if they think of
all of the options one by one.
Future plans:
If there is enough time, we will do the DDT competition but if
theres not enough time or the students need more time
exploring/practicing with the rules we will do DDT next class period.
If we finish then next class period will be a review of all of the angle
properties and problems that we have explored over the past
couple of weeks.

Dance Dance Transversal Lesson Plan

Roy Herpin III

Lesson Plan Reflection

1. What parts of the lesson were more effective? What went well in your teaching? What
evidence can you provide?
Cutting out the angles worked well for the most part. The students were able to
understand the congruent pairs and supplementary pairs, and didnt need much
persuading; they pretty much knew why that worked.
The Dance Dance Transversal game went exceptionally well. All of the students
loved it and we even had some of my students from other classes jump in. We
also did a big tournament and competition at the end. I was surprised but every
student participated with only a little bit of motivation.
2. What parts of the lesson were less effective? What didnt go as well in your teaching?
What evidence can you provide?
Cutting out the angles. Although parts of it went well there were also parts that
were lacking. I assumed students would make cutting errors and use the wrong
vertices however I didnt expect it to be as much of a problem as it was. Some
groups got it and ran with it while others argued and struggled. And they didnt
just argue over which vertex to use, but whether or not they were actually
congruent and who was cutting and comparing. It got a little crazy.
3. What aspects of the lesson did not go as planned? How did you address this? Provide
support.
I didnt expect the students to struggle as much with the cutouts. I just asked
them for their explanations as to why they thought what they thought and we
collectively agreed on why it mattered, which vertex to use, etc.
4. If you were to teach this lesson again, what would you change or do differently? Why?
I would choose the groups. Some of the students were paired up who shouldnt
have been and it caused most if not all of the complications with the cutouts.
They werent a huge problem but there would not have been any aside from
minor hiccups if those students werent in the same group.
5. What insights did you gain from teaching this lesson?
Active lesson are a hit, especially in math classes.
This stuff worked with a variety of ages too, 7th graders and 11th graders were
playing together and competing.
Competitions work exceptionally well with kids especially in different classes or
grades.