Topic: Congruent triangles

Year group: Second year

Lesson Plan taught: February,

2016
At Coláiste Cholmáin, Claremorris, Second year class
Teacher: Mr Roy Hession
Lesson plan developed by: Roy Hession (Coláiste Cholmáin, Claremorris),
Joanna Pres-Jennings (Coláiste Iognáid, Galway),
Christina Kennedy (Seamount College, Kinvara)

Title of the Lesson

“To Be or Not To Be: Congruent Triangles”

Brief description of the lesson

By drawing congruent triangles, students will notice the minimal number of conditions that
determine when two triangles are congruent. The tasks will present the students with a
challenge that requires thinking and presentation of ideas to their peers.

Aims of the lesson

a) Short term aim: We would like our students to establish what is the least amount of
information required in order for two triangles to be considered congruent.
b) Long term aims: We would like our students:
i. to gain confidence in dealing with abstract concepts,
ii. to develop ideas involved in mathematical proof through the construction of
counterexamples.
c) We would like to support our students in developing their literacy and numeracy skills
through discussing ideas.

Learning Outcomes
As a result of studying this topic students will be able to:

a) decide which conditions are necessary in order to show that two triangles are
congruent,
b) produce counterexamples to show that we cannot always draw congruent triangles
using any three measurements (in particular, show that AAA and SSA are not
sufficient conditions for congruence)
c) present logical ideas to their peers.
Background and Rationale

The concept of congruent triangles plays a significant role in both Junior and Senior Cycle
mathematics as part of many abstract proofs (see Section B of the syllabus, Geometry for
Post-primary School Mathematics, p.37-83). It is a challenging topic to teach effectively. The
congruence axioms may seem dry and theoretical to students. In the past we have taught
this topic using ideas from Junior Certificate Mathematics Guidelines for Teachers (DES
2002, Geometry Lesson Idea 14, page 72), where students would have constructed four
triangles given three specific side lengths, two angle measures and a side length between
them, the lengths of two sides and a measure of an included angle or a right angle,
hypotenuse and one other side. The students would then have cut these out from a
cardboard and place on a template made by a teacher to see that it is impossible to draw a
triangle which is not identical to all the others with these measurements. The aim of that
activity was to allow students to convince themselves of the truth of congruence conditions
using concrete materials. In this lesson we intend to develop another approach to teaching
this challenging topic.

Research
In preparation of this lesson plan the following materials have been used:

a) Junior Certificate Mathematics Guidelines for Teachers (DES 2002)

b) First and second year Teachers Handbooks (from the Project Maths website
www.projectmaths.ie)
c) Congruent Shapes - selected excerpts from the Japanese teachers’ manuals
obtained from
http://lessonresearch.net/NSF_TOOLKIT/Area_toolkit_manual.pdf
d) Mathematics Assessment Project (www.mathshell.org) A Formative Assessment
Lesson: Evaluating Conditions for Congruency.

About the Unit and the Lesson

According to the Junior Certificate Mathematics Syllabus for examination from 2016 (Strand
2, Section 2.1 Synthetic geometry, pages 17-19) students at Ordinary Level:

a) learn about the concept of congruent triangles (see Syllabus: Geometry Course
section 9.1, p. 80),
b) study Axiom 4: Congruent triangles (SAS, ASA and SSS),
c) complete constructions 10 (triangle, given lengths of three sides), 11 (triangle, given
SAS data), 12 (triangle, given ASA data).

Furthermore, “it is intended that all of the geometrical results on the course would first be
encountered by students through investigation” (Geometry Course, section 8.2).

From Junior Certificate Mathematics Guidelines for Teachers (2002, p.20): “Synthetic
geometry is traditionally intended to promote students’ ability to recognise and present
logical arguments. More able students address one of the greatest of mathematical
concepts, that of proof, and hopefully come to appreciate the abstractions and
generalisations involved. Other students may not consider formal proof, but should be able
to draw appropriate conclusions from given geometrical data. Explaining and defending their
findings, in either case, should help students to further their powers of communication.”
In the proposed sequence of lessons on the notion of congruence, at first students learn
about congruent figures as those having the same shape and the same size (match up
perfectly, manipulation of concrete materials, for example CDs, stack of A4 sheets, triangles
made out of geostrips, pentagons). Then students identify the common features of
congruent polygons (angles, side lengths). In the research lesson they minimise the amount
of information required to draw congruent triangles and so arrive at the conditions SSS,
SAS, ASA. They also practice their skills in constructing triangles. Further, through the
construction of counterexamples, students draw conclusions about the AAA and SSA
conditions.

Flow of the Unit

Synthetic Geometry 2, First Year Teacher Handbook based on 2016 syllabus

# of lesson
Topic periods
Types of triangles and determining whether it is possible to draw a 3
triangle with the given sets of conditions (including constructions 10,
11, 12, without using SSS, SAS, ASA abbreviations, and sets of
conditions that do not yield a triangle).
The meaning of congruent shapes. 1

Congruent triangles (drawing congruent triangles and finding the 3

minimal conditions SSS, ASA, SAS; realising that we cannot always (1 research
draw congruent triangles using any three measurements; practice lesson included)
problems).

Theorem 2 (Isosceles triangles). 5

Alternate angles. Theorems 3 (transversal) and 4 (sum of angles).
Corresponding angles. Theorems 5 (transversal) and 6 (exterior
angle in a triangle).
Constructions 1-4
Translations, axial symmetry, central symmetry, rotation (map a 5
triangle onto a congruent triangle)
Flow of the Lesson

Teaching Activities and Students’ Anticipated Responses Points of

Consideration
1. Introduction (3 minutes)
What do we mean when we say that two geometric figures are
congruent? (congruent figures are of the same shape and size) Teacher shows pairs
of geometric figures
What is the same in these two triangles? (rectangles, circles,
(All three corresponding sides and all three corresponding angles are pentagons, triangles)
to allow students
Problem for today: What is the least amount of information we identify the common
need to know to make sure that two triangles are congruent? features during the
equal.) comparison.

Ensure in the
2. Posing the Task (5 minutes) preceding lessons that
the students are
On the worksheet you are given a triangle ABC. Your task is to draw a comfortable with the
triangle that is congruent to triangle ABC. word corresponding.

Students use a
compass, ruler &
protractor.

You will all start by drawing a line segment that has the same length as
the side AB. Then you will think about how many sides and angles you
need to know in order to draw a triangle congruent to triangle ABC. You
have ten minutes to work on this problem. Use your rulers, compasses
and protractors.

3. Students individual work (10 minutes) Teacher circulates the

room assessing
students’ work to plan
how to orchestrate the
presentation of
students’ work on the
board and class
discussion.
4. Class discussion (15 minutes) Teacher picks a
student who tried
Let’s discuss now how you decided where the third vertex of the three sides. When the
triangle should be placed. student has presented
his/her reason, the
teacher places a
poster on the board.
Student 1
If we know that three sides in one triangle are the same lengths as
three sides in another triangle then the two triangles must be
congruent.

Student 2

If two angles and the included side in one triangle are the same as
two angles and the included side in another triangle, then the two
triangles must be congruent.

Could we get away with one angle?

Student 3 Student 4

If two sides and the angle between them (included angle) in one
triangle are equal to two sides and the included angle in another
triangle then the two triangles must be congruent.
Let’s think about what will happen if we take the 5.3 cm and 6 cm sides
and the non-included angle of 50 degrees.

If time does not allow

leave it for the next
class.

Could we have the SSA axiom? Given two sides and a non-included
angle, how many different triangles can you make? (at least two)

Could we get away without any side length? Let’s take the three angles,
50, 60 and 70 degrees. How many different triangles can you make
using these angles? (Everyone could have a different triangle.) Could
we have the AAA axiom? (No)
5. Summing up (2 minutes)
Now I would like you to write down in your copies two sentences about
what you learned in today’s lesson.

Evaluation: Plan for observing students

• A seating plan provided by the teacher
• Three observers, 8 students per observer, one observer uses the app LessonNote,
the other two pen and paper using the Lesson Plan
• Types of student thinking and behaviour observers will focus on:
Introduction, posing the Can students recall the characteristics of congruent
task shapes?
Was wording of the task clear?
Questions asked by students
Individual work Can students draw congruent triangles?
Are prompts required?
What strategies do they employ when drawing congruent
triangles?
Are they able to determine the minimum information
needed? How long do students spend on the task?
 What kind of questions do students ask?
Do they persist with the task?
Discussion Are students attentive to what is happening on the board?
Are clarifications needed to presenters’ board work?
Did the discussion promote student learning?

• Additional kinds of evidence collected (exemplars of students’ work, photographs,

end of lesson reflection)

Board Plan

SSS poster ASA poster SAS poster

Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4

Post-lesson reflection

Note: The dimensions of a triangle given in class (see below) were different to the
dimensions in the lesson plan. Furthermore, the diagram distributed among students had no
measurements displayed, except for the side length of 22 cm.
What are the major patterns and tendencies in the evidence?

It is vital that students are aware of what they are trying to solve i.e. initial question must be
very clear. Students must have clear understanding of what they are asked to do.

We found that when the students were presented with a line on the page they tended to
come up with the ASA condition first. When they got this initial success and were prompted
to look for other conditions appropriate to establish congruence they were more confident
and clear about what they were asked to do. The two other conditions of SSS and SAS soon
followed.

It was also observed that many students started their work by measuring the lengths and
angles of the given triangle (measurements had not been given in the diagram).

What are the key observations or representative examples of student learning and
thinking?

Students were slow to start and cautious at the outset but once they established one of the
criteria to establish congruence they were more comfortable at attempting other conditions.
At the start a student asked for clarification: “Do we count the bottom line?” as part of the
minimal number of conditions.

One quarter of the class members were very clear from the outset of what was required.
When the first student peer taught ASA to his classmates, reinforced by the teacher, all
students in the class were then very clear on what was required and then they soon began
to see two other sets of conditions as SAS and SSS.

When SSS was established as an acceptable criterion some students began to wonder if
AAA would imply congruence. This misconception was very quickly ruled out by several
students as not implying or proving congruency (“Angles are the same but sides could be
anything”). One student asked “Is it possible to do a triangle using two bits of information?”
That was quickly ruled out too by the rest of the class (given two side lengths “you wouldn’t
know in which direction to draw the line”, “you wouldn’t know where the third side will
connect”, given a side and an angle “you wouldn’t know how long the line will be”).

What does the evidence suggest about student thinking such as their
misconceptions, difficulties, confusion, insights, surprising ideas, etc?

Students were clear about their understanding of congruent shapes. They understood what
congruent triangles were.

The task of trying to come up with the least number of conditions required in order for two
triangles to be congruent took some students a few minutes to comprehend. But, once they
reached one condition, others then followed. Surprisingly, the majority of the students got
the ASA condition first. A couple of students started off drawing the SSS condition first. It
was noticed that one student took a while to start off but after positive reinforcement and
prompting by the teacher the student then started to draw the condition ASA.

One student introduced AAA towards the end of class. This was then very successfully
discussed and the students then ruled it out as a possible condition.

In what ways did students achieve or not achieve the learning goals?
Students achieved their learning goals as all students drew out at least one condition.
Overall approximately half of the students in the class arrived at the three conditions ASA,
SAS and SSS. The students were able to articulate their methods clearly at the board to
their peers. The main concepts were reinforced and summarized by the teacher after each
student presented their work. The pre-prepared posters worked very well in getting all
students to follow the flow of the lesson. The final board plan worked very well as a final
revision of the class. Overall, it was clear from the student engagement in this class that the
students understood the concepts.

Based on your analysis, how would you change or revise the lesson?

A. Students showed that they are able to minimise the number of conditions needed to
draw congruent triangles. There was evidence of students trying to draw a congruent
triangle using SSA that would lead to two scenarios (Note: the dimensions given in class
were different to the dimensions in the lesson plan, but led to the same observations).
Five minutes into the task two students in a group of eight performed the following steps.

First student:

Second student:

Both students took the further point of intersection disregarding the other point. They both
used two sides and a non-included angle. The time constraint of a 40 minute lesson did not
allow for detailed discussion of the SSA condition.

Recommendation: Return to the ambiguous case in the following lesson. Drawing longer
arcs or even full circles may help to train student’s eye to notice unusual cases.

B. Asking the students to justify their methods is important: “How could you convince your
classmates that your triangle is congruent to triangle ABC?”

Recommendation: Let students think about ways to verify their observations. Students could
check the lengths of the remaining sides and the size of the remaining angles or they could
perform their constructions on tracing paper and then show that their triangles overlap with
the triangle ABC.
C. Students tend to draw triangles that have similar orientation to the given triangle.
Furthermore, some students do not see an arc as a part of a circle.

Recommendation: To make students aware of other choices, suggest drawing full circles,
when using the three lengths (SSS). This approach would create two positions of the third
vertex.

D. The lesson was closed with the whole class overview of the conditions established
during the discussion.

Recommendation: An alternative closure could involve the end of lesson reflection “Write
down what you learnt today” followed up with a suitable homework (see Appendix 2).

What are the implications for teaching in your field?

Through the process of planning the lesson we experienced how important it is (and not
straightforward at all!) to formulate a clear meaningful problem that allows students the
opportunity to extend their knowledge and give an account of their work within a single
lesson. The amount of discussion and thinking about the shape of the lesson will certainly
influence our future teaching. We learned that problem solving is not the same as just
solving a task and active learning is not all about rolling a die and using unifix cubes. We
understand that problem solving involves engaging in a task for which the solution method is
not known beforehand, getting stuck and unstuck and communicating methods/solutions.

We sometimes lack conviction on students’ ability to investigate a mathematical problem.

Here, students in a mixed-ability class showed that they are able to draw congruent triangles
by investigating the necessary side lengths and angle sizes. They showed a lot of
enthusiasm at the end of the lesson formulating hypotheses regarding the possibility to
further minimise the number of necessary conditions to two. It is likely that students would
enjoy investigating a similar problem for congruent quadrilaterals.
It remains to be seen if the experience of this lesson will help retain information regarding
congruent triangles and make dealing with abstract problems less daunting. However, we
believe that this lesson deepened students understanding of the characteristics of congruent
triangles and provided them with an opportunity to present their own methods (and thus
gain the ownership of the SSS, SAS and ASA axioms). It would be worthwhile to prepare
more lessons in a similar fashion.

Appendix 1. Worksheet

1. What is the least number of measurements that you need in order to draw a triangle
that is congruent to triangle ABC?
2. Start by drawing a line segment that has the same length as side AB.
Appendix 2. Homework

1. (If alternate angles and basic properties of quadrilaterals studied before)

Which of the quadrilaterals below will make two congruent triangles when divided
along the diagonal? Explain congruence without measuring the angles and sides.

Trapezium Parallelogram Rhombus

2. (Leading to counterexamples that could be discussed in the following lesson)

a) I have drawn a triangle. It has sides of length 3 cm and 4 cm and an angle of 34

degrees.
You draw a triangle with the same properties.
Must my triangle be congruent to yours?
Write down a convincing explanation.

b) I have drawn a triangle. It has angles of 50 and 30 degrees and one side is 5 cm
long.
You draw a triangle with the same properties.
Must my triangle be congruent to yours?
Write down a convincing explanation.