Virginia SOL 4.MG.5.c
The Standard
Identify and describe parallel, intersecting, perpendicular, and congruent sides in quadrilaterals.
Virginia Standards of Learning for Mathematics · The student will classify and describe quadrilaterals (parallelograms, rectangles, squares, rhombi, and/or trapezoids) using specific properties and attributes.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine quadrilaterals and describe how pairs of sides relate. They use arrows, right-angle boxes, and tick marks to show those relationships.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly mark side relationships on quadrilaterals, even when shapes are rotated. They explain their choices using equal lengths, shared vertices, right angles, and sides that never meet.
Common Misconceptions
- Students often confuse parallel sides with sides that have equal length. They may also think perpendicular sides must be vertical and horizontal, or that sides meeting at any angle are perpendicular.
How to Assess It
- Give students an unlabeled rectangle. Ask them to mark each pair of parallel sides, congruent sides, intersecting sides, and perpendicular sides.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build quadrilaterals with craft sticks, then use colored tape to mark parallel, congruent, intersecting, and perpendicular side pairs.
Compare a rectangle and a rhombus, then write two ways their side relationships are alike and one way they differ.
Play a clue-card game where students match quadrilaterals to descriptions such as two pairs of parallel sides or four congruent sides.
Study a simple street map and label roads that are parallel, intersecting, or perpendicular, then connect each relationship to a quadrilateral.
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Related Standards
- 4.MG.5.e
Denote properties of quadrilaterals and identify parallel sides, congruent sides, and right angles by using geometric markings.
- 4.MG.5.b
Identify and describe points, line segments, angles, and vertices in quadrilaterals.
- 7.MG.2.a
Identify corresponding congruent angles of similar quadrilaterals and triangles, through the use of geometric markings.
- 7.MG.2.b
Identify corresponding sides of similar quadrilaterals and triangles.
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