Reflections in Geometry
Are you looking for reflections in geometry practice for your students? Miss Kuiper’s Classroom has you covered with this printable and digital worksheet set!
This set has 2 different printable worksheets to help students learn how to reflect a point and a shape on a coordinate plane. These reflections in geometry worksheets also include 2 digital & interactive worksheets for students. Also included are 2 leveled Google Forms for additional practice or to be given as an assessment.
Printable Worksheets
Worksheet #1: Introduction to Reflection
There are 2 double-sided worksheets included with this set. They are scaffolded to help students progress in their understanding from doing a reflection of a point to creating an algebraic rule. The style of problems vary to allow your students to think flexibly with reflections in geometry to gain mastery over the concept.
Let’s take a look at the first worksheet. This introduction to reflections on a coordinate plane worksheet has 3 sections.
Section #1 lets your students get acquainted with flip something over the x or y-axis. When I taught this, I know my students seemed to initially struggle with the phrasing of “reflect over the axis.” Read how I helped students work with that barrier here! The visual gives them a guiding point as to what their reflection should look like after completing it.
Section #2 is all about practicing. The Common Core State Standard 8.G.3 says that students need to be able to describe what happens to the coordinate points from the pre-image to the image. Because of this, students will be asked to provide the coordinate point for both components. Worksheet #1 only deals with a single point on the graph to allow your students to get the hang of reflecting over the axis before doing a whole shape.
And finally Section #3. In this section, students are given 8 different scenarios where they need to decide if the reflection happened over the x-axis, y-axis or neither.
Worksheet #2: Diving Deeper
Moving into the second worksheet, this is where students practice with a full shape. I’ve found that scaffolding the practice like this, from one point to a full shape, has helped my students retain their understanding better.
Similarly to Worksheet #1, this has 3 sections as well. Section #1 is all about the practice. Students are given either a shape with 4 or 5 vertices. They are asked to identify the pre-image coordinates as well as the image coordinates. This goes back to CCSS 8.G.3 and moves students towards being able to come up with the algebraic rule or expression. And that leads us into Section #2.
In Section #2, students are asked, “Looking at Problem 1 & 3, what do you notice about the coordinates from the pre-image to the image?” This is followed by “Using your observation, what would the algebraic representation for reflections of the y-axis be? Having this progression of questions allows a more natural understanding of what a reflection does to the coordinates.
And now comes my favorite part, Section #3. The reason why I love this section is because it offers students some creative freedom.
Even with the small amount of choice that goes with this project can have monumental effects on buy-in and learning. Read about how choice can affect learning here!
