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First of all, I would like to commend your team on a job well done writing the progressions document. It has proven to be an excellent resource for the teachers and staff in our district. Just last week, a group of math specialists I was working with at a conference had a lengthy discussion as to whether or not identifying and describing a trapezoid is part of the Common Core standards for kindergarten. The Common Core standard K.G.1 states, “Identify and describe shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, cubes, cones, cylinders, and sphere.” This leads some to believe that kindergarten teachers are responsible for teaching their students to identify and describe the following 2-D shapes; squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, and hexagons. However, in the progression document for kindergarten geometry there is a line that states, “They increase their knowledge of a variety of shapes, including circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and special cases of other shapes such as regular hexagons and trapezoids with unequal bases and non-parallel sides of equal length.” Any input that you can provide to help clear this up for our team would be greatly appreciated. We greatly value your expertise and hope to hear from you soon!
I think there’s a difference between “Identify and describe” and “increase their knowledge of.” Notice that it is a particular sort of trapezoid being described, one with two non-parallel sides of equal length. Students might see such shapes around the classroom, or build them up out of triangular and rectangular tiles, or has some tiles of that shape available, as in the picture on the next page. So in that sense they will become familiar with them. And maybe they will have a name for them, but the standards don’t specify that.
Thank you for this clarification! So when assessing students in kindergarten on 2-D shape recognition, should we be expecting that all kindergarteners be able to identify a trapezoid? From your response I am interpreting that we just need to expose them to this term/shape throughout the year, but not expect identification mastery.
Thank you for this clarification! So when assessing students in kindergarten on 2-D shape recognition, should we be expecting that all kindergarteners be able to identify a trapezoid? From your response I am interpreting that we just need to expose them to this term/shape throughout the year, but not expect identification mastery.
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