TRIANGLE CONGRUENCE DAY 1

Lesson Overview
This lesson is teaching students about triangle congruence. For two triangles to be
congruent, all of their sides and the measure of their angles must be equivalent. However,
students will learn the Triangle Congruence Postulates that will make checking for
congruence more simple than checking each side and angle. The two triangle congruence
postulates students will learn in this lesson are Side-Angle-Side (SAS) and Side-Side-Side
(SSS).

Standards
National Standards
Common Core Math Standards
G-CO.6:
Use geometric descriptions of rigid motions to transform figures and to predict the effect of
a given rigid motion on a given figure; given two figures, use the definition of congruence in
terms of rigid motions to decide if they are congruent.
G-CO.7:
Use the definition of congruence in terms of rigid motions to show that two triangles are
congruent if and only if corresponding pairs of sides and corresponding pairs of angles are
congruent.
G-CO.8:
Explain how the criteria for triangle congruence (ASA, SAS, and SSS) follow from the
definition of congruence in terms of rigid motions.
NY Math Standards
6 to12: <p>College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language:</p>
<p>Vocabulary Acquistion and Use</p>
<p>6. Acqurie and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words
and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career
readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when
considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.</p>
6 to12: <p>College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and
Listening:</p>
<p>Comprehension and Collaboration</p>
<p>1. Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations
with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.</p>

Prerequisite Knowledge
Students will need to know the following theorems include: measures of interior angles of a
triangle sum to 180?; base angles of isosceles triangles are congruent; the segment joining
midpoints of two sides of a triangle is parallel to the third side and half the length; the
medians of a triangle meet at a point. Students should also have a developed
understanding of congruent figures. (Standard 8.G.2 Understand that a two-dimensional
figure is congruent to another if the second can be obtained from the first by a sequence of

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 rotations, reflections and translations: given two congruent figures, describe a sequence
that exhibits the congruence between them. )

Supporting Details
Materials
Whiteboards
Erasers
Markers
Rules
Protractors
Cutouts of Triangles

Helpful Information for Teachers

Documents
Triangle Congruence Exit Ticket.docx (15KB)
Sample Triangles.docx (72KB)

Web Links
Instructional Plans
Engage 1 (2-5 min)
1. Engage Details
Sub-components:
Prior Knowledge
Representative Questions:
(1) What do you know about...? (2) What have you seen like this? (3) What have we
studied that might apply here?
Engage Description:
Start by asking students for a definition of "congruent" to activate their prior knowledge.
Students should determine that two figures are congruent if they are the same in
shape and size. Then, assign students a "Do Now," which will be tocreate a Frayer
model for &ldquo;congruent triangles." Split the class into four and have each group fill
out the model. Once they have completed their Frayer model,ask them to formulate a
hypothesis on what is the minimum criteria necessary to prove congruence in triangles
and write it down. Ask the groups to fill in the Frayer model on the front board (each
group with fill out one of the four sections of the model). Then, ask several groups of
four to share with the class commonalities between the different sections of their
Frayer models. Ask the class if they would like to add any extra points to the model
before confirming what is right.
2. Formative Assessments
Think, pair, share
Students reasoned that in order for triangles to be congruent that they must have all
three sides congruent or the measures of their angles must be congruent. Students
can then get together and discuss what criteria would be needed to show to triangles
cannot be congruent.
3. Teacher Reflection
(1) What did student prior knowledge indicate about readiness to learn and existing

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 schema?
proceed; quick review; remediate

Explore 1 (10-15 min)

1. Explore Details
Sub-components:
Predict, Test, Collect, Justify
Representative Questions:
(1) What if...? (2) What would you expect to happen? Why? (3) What do you need to
collect? (4) How will you organize your information? (5) How much data/information
do you need to collect? (6) What are some changes you noticed in...?
Explore Description:
Have the class form back into their groups. Then, give each group a marker, an eraser,
a ruler, and a protractor and allow them to work on the classroom whiteboards.Then,
have each group construct their own triangle, carefully labeling the measure of each
side and each angle. Be sure students label their triangle ABC. Before students start,
be sure to ask them to keep in mind,

-&ldquo; What questions would be useful about triangles that help us to construct
it?&rdquo;
- &ldquo;Which combinations of angles and sides will establish triangle congruence?
&ldquo;
- &ldquo;Which combinations of angles and sides will not establish triangle
congruence?&rdquo;

Next, each group will be paired &ldquo;head to head&rdquo; with another group, and
take turns asking questions about the others triangle. The goal is for the group to
construct their opponent&rsquo;s triangle, asking the least amount of questions. The
students might ask, &ldquo;What is the measure of angle A?&rdquo; Students should
write down both their questions and the answers. The groups should begin to draw the
triangle that they believe is congruent to the hidden triangle. Groups will continue to
ask questions and continue to attempt to draw a triangle congruent to the hidden
triangle. The teacher should walk around the classroom and make sure that each
group is working together and discussing which questions to ask. As time allows,
students will pair up with a different group and repeat the process.
-What is the minimum number of questions needed to attain the congruence?
(Explain?)

As a summary ask students to record the different ways to establish that two triangles
are congruent.
2. Formative Assessments
Observation, Think, pair, share
Based on the questions asked by the students about the triangles, compare the
results. Do students recognize certain questions that will be helpful to them? Can they
use this information and their method of questioning to prove congruence in any given
triangle? Give one more example to the class to test this.
3. Teacher Reflection
(1) Skillfulness of predictions made? (2) Conjectures being tested? Alignment of
testing with the question/content being explored? (3) Meaningfulness of data
collected? How organized? (4) Justification of approach used to solve

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 question/problem? What justification tells about understanding?
proceed; clarify; remediate; re-engage

Explain 1 (roughly 7 min)

1. Explain Details
Sub-components:
Interpret, Evidence/Justify/Verify, Analyze
Representative Questions:
(1) What took place? (2) Explain what happened? (3) What pattern(s) did you notice?
(4) What evidence do you have for your statement? (5) What has been learned?
Explain Description:
Through questioning from the activity, students should discover that asking for the
measures of the three sides of the triangle allowed them to draw a congruent triangle.
They should also discover that asking for the measures of two sides and a
corresponding angle also allowed them to construct a congruent triangle. This
information should allow them to discover that the Triangle Congruence Theorems
state that Side-Side-Side (SSS) and Side-Angle-Side (SAS) show congruence in
triangles. Therefore, if they do not remember the specific congruence theorems, they
will know what to look for when showing congruence. Make sure to give students the
official definitions of SSS and SAS.
SSS-Triangles are congruent if all three sides in one triangle are congruent to the
corresponding sides in the other.
SAS-Triangles are congruent if any pair of corresponding sides and their included
angles are equal in both triangles.
2. Formative Assessments
Whole Class Discussion, Small Group Discussion
Place students in small groups and have them demonstate that the triangle
congruence theorems SSS and SAS work for various triangles through various
examples. Have each of them sketch a few different types of triangles in their groups.
Then have a few students go up to the board, draw their triangles, and explain why
they are congruent (either SSS or SAS).
3. Teacher Reflection
(1) Quality and accuracy of interpretation of results? (2) Strength of evidence for
claims? Ability to verify procedure/results? Skillfulness in justifying approach/results?
(3) Ability to analyze the quality of exploration conducted?
proceed; re-engage; re-explore; remediate; have students clarify

Extend 1 (2-5 min)

1. Extend Details
Sub-components:
Apply, Generalize
Representative Questions:
(1) What would happen if...? (2) How do you think... applies to ...? (3) What decisions
need to be made? What consequences
/benefits/risks accompany certain decisions?
Extend Description:
Apply the Triangle Congruence Postulates to triangles with more unknowns and try to
determine if two triangles are congruent. Give examples of two triangles that are not

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 congruent and have students determine why they fail the congruence tests.
2. Formative Assessments
Think, pair, share
Assign students an exit ticket and allow them to work with partners to review all of the
material on triangle congruence learned today. To end the lesson, revisit the
postulates orally and make a real-life connection by mentioning that they will need to
know this for physics class in the future. Also connect it to engineers who do this kind
of math everyday. Ask students what other congruence postulates may exist based off
SSS and SAS. Say that they will be learning this in the next lesson.
3. Teacher Reflection
(1) Quality and number of applications made? (2) Competence and accuracy
generalizing experience?
debrief; re-engage; re-explore; have students clarify; another extension

Contributed by:
Michael Roman, Manhattan College, NY

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