Coordinate plane artwork

For this lesson students will go to the computer lab and use the General Coordinate Game applet created by the Shodor Foundation to obtain a more specific understanding of the coordinate plane, its parts, and how it can be used to graph points. Afterward, the students will practice using the coordinate plane by drawing a picture on a coordinate plane and then writing out directions (using coordinates) for that picture to be replicated exactly by another student, who will not see the picture but will follow the directions.

A lesson plan for grades 5–6 Mathematics

By Erin Foerster

Learn more

Related pages

• Human coordinate graph: Students will actively learn how to plot ordered pairs on a coordinate plane. They will also learn how to connect ordered pairs to graph a picture.
• Step right up!: The students will learn to name an ordered pair for a point and plot positions named by an ordered pair on a large grid located on the classroom floor.
• You sank my battleship: Students will learn how to plot ordered pairs using the coordinate plane and determine in which quadrant these ordered pairs lie. Students will show mastery of plotting ordered pairs by playing Battleship. Modifications have been added for Intermediate Low English Language Learners.

Related topics

• Learn more about coordinate planes, geometry, mathematics, and ordered pairs.

Help

Please read our disclaimer for lesson plans.

Legal

Learning outcomes

• Students will practice using the terms associated with the coordinate plane: x axis, y axis, quadrants, coordinate points, ordered pairs, origin, negative numbers, positive numbers.
• Students will be able to graph ordered pairs, in the form (x,y) in all quadrants.
• Students will be able to state the location of points within all quadrants by giving ordered pairs in the form (x,y).
• Students will be able to draw a picture on the coordinate plane using all quadrants and then create a set of directions such that, when followed, will recreate the image they originally drew.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

135 Minutes

Materials/resources

• Coordinate Plane Grid Sheet, as big as a piece of computer paper (transparency and paper copies for the students)
• Overhead projector markers
• Pencils
• Paper

Technology resources

• A computer lab, or at least a one-computer classroom with an LCD projector, in order to project the screen of the one computer onto a screen in the classroom.
• Overhead projector

Pre-activities

• Students should recognize the coordinate plane.
• Students should know the difference between the x-axis and the y-axis and where each is found on the coordinate plane.
• Students should know that the positive numbers go from the right and up from the origin and that negative numbers go to the left and down from the origin.

Activities

Steps one (1) through five (5) will take one 90-min class period or two 45-min class periods.

1. Begin class by reviewing the different parts of the coordinate plane. Refer to the Shodor Foundation Coordinate Plane discussion. Make sure you point out and label the four quadrants, the x and y axes, the origin, and where the negative and positive numbers are found. Use an overhead projector with a template of a coordinate plane. Label the different parts with an overhead marker.
2. Now, use an LCD projector to project the General Coordinate Game applet from the Shodor website onto a screen in the classroom. (If you have access to a computer lab, go there and do the same thing and have the students follow along. If not, simply demonstrate this to the students.)
3. Explain the general premise of this resource. Allow the students some time to practice using it. Circle the room, if you are in the computer lab, and help the students as needed. If you are projecting this in your classroom, after you have showed the students several examples, call students up to the front and have them try their hand at some of the problems.
4. For added practice and a lot of fun, have the students go to the Maze Game applet, also created by the Shodor Foundation. Again, if you have only one computer and an LCD projector, have students come up to the front of the room and work through the game. The entire class can help out.
5. For homework, give the students a blank coordinate plane grid sheet (make sure it is big enough that it almost fills up a piece of computer paper and make sure it goes to at least positive 10 and negative 10 as its maximums and minimums. These grids are often found in the back of teacher’s editions or in teacher’s resource books as black-line masters). For their assignment, the students should draw a picture on their grid and, on a separate sheet of paper, write directions using ordered pairs and some guiding words such that it will be able to be easily redrawn by one of their classmates the next day during class. There are several stipulations:
   • the drawing must include each of the quadrants
   • their drawing and subsequent directions must include at least 30 separate ordered pairs
   • the directions MUST be put on a different piece of paper than the drawing. For example, a student might have in their directions, “Draw a point at (3,2) and label it A. Next, draw a point at (8,9) and label it B. Now, connect A to B.”

The following should take about one 45-min class period:

1. As students come into class, tell them to hide their drawings but take out their direction sheets. Collect all the directions and jumble them up. Hand out another copy of the blank coordinate plane grid to each student. Then, hand out the directions so that no student gets his or her own direction sheet. Now, allow the students time to use the directions to draw the picture. They should not have any idea what they are actually drawing but will come to realize it as they work through the directions.
2. The students should confirm with their classmates if their drawing is indeed correct.
3. When finished, the students should give the drawing they drew during class and the directions they followed back to the person who wrote them in the first place. This person will then hand up, as his/her homework grade, his/her original drawing, the directions for his/her drawing, and the drawing that another student did using his/her directions. This will allow the teacher to see if the student’s directions were correct, clear, and/or thorough enough for another to follow.

Assessment

When reviewing a student’s original drawing, his/her directions, and the drawing based on the student’s directions but actually drawn by another student, use the following rubric to assign grades. A “4″ is the highest score any student can earn, a “1″ is the lowest score any student can earn.

4 - Drawing is neat, clear, and clever, Drawing covers all four quadrants, at least 30 ordered pairs are included in the drawing and directions, directions are neat, clear, and precise, other student’s drawing matches original drawing

3 - Drawing is mostly neat and clear, Drawing covers all four quadrants, 20-30 ordered pairs are included in the drawing and directions, directions are mostly neat, clear, and precise, other student’s drawing matches original drawing

2 - Drawing is sloppy and hard to interpret, Drawing covers less than four quadrants, less than 20 ordered pairs are included in the drawing and directions, directions are unclear and difficult to follow, other student’s drawing looks nothing like the original drawing

1 - Drawing is sloppy and hard to interpret, Drawing covers only one quadrant, less than 10 ordered pairs are included in the drawing and directions, directions are unclear and difficult to follow or not given, other student was not able to draw the picture, or the drawing looks nothing like the original student’s drawing

Supplemental information

Comments

The preferred method for teaching this lesson plan is to take the class to the computer lab, so each student can work independently with the Shodor Foundation web site. However, I did teach this lesson to one of my classes using my computer and an LCD projector in my classroom. It worked very well and the students remained actively involved throughout the lesson.