CLARK — After learning about the four quadrants in the coordinate plane, students in Krista Chapman’s class at the Carl H. Kumpf Middle School in Clark were asked to “plot themselves.” They were given an ordered pair and a large scale coordinate plane constructed on the floor using each tile as a unit.
Students learned that their placement would be determined both by the x and y value given to them. While they are experienced at plotting positive ordered pairs, plotting negatives values added a challenge. When called, the student began at the origin of the graph or point (0,0) facing quadrants I and II. He or she then walked the appropriate number of tiles alone the x-axis. Students quickly learned that they would need to walk to the left for a negative x-value and to the right for a positive x-value. After moving to the correct x-value students would walk forward or backward to the given y-value.
Each student had a paper displaying the ordered pair for the class to view. It was the students’ job to make sure their peers found the correct point. After all students were standing on their ordered pair, students had the opportunity to guess what shape the points created.
In the picture above, Andrew Lakkis and Deno Nicholas hold their ordered pair while Michael Shakleton helps Nick Ridente find his spot on the coordinate plane in Krista Chapman’s mathematics class. (Photo courtesy of Clark Public Schools)
