Position and Direction - Reflections - Planning

In a Year 6 Autumn term lesson on Geometry focusing on Position and Direction, students are introduced to the concept of reflections. The lesson plan begins with a small step starter to recap previous learning and then moves on to class teaching input where key vocabulary such as 'coordinates', 'reflection', 'translate', 'axis', and 'symmetry' are discussed. Students are encouraged to visit the website for vocabulary cards and definitions to support their understanding. The main activity involves distinguishing between translation and reflection of shapes. Students explore reflections by using a printed copy of Activity 2 from the teaching slides, where they reflect shapes across axes and identify the coordinates of the vertices of the reflected shapes. They are guided to understand that a reflected shape maintains its congruency with the original but its orientation is flipped and remains equidistant from the mirror line.

The lesson includes practical group work where students complete reasoning tasks from teaching slides and share their strategies, allowing for the identification and correction of any misconceptions. Independent learning is facilitated through differentiated fluency and reasoning worksheets. Key questions prompt students to think critically about the process of reflecting shapes, such as the differences between reflecting and translating, and the importance of reflecting each vertex accurately. The plenary session encourages students to reflect on what they have learned, the skills they have used and found challenging, and the resources that aided their learning. The lesson caters to varying levels of understanding, from working towards the expected level, where students reflect shapes in both axes and complete parts of a table, to working at greater depth, where they include coordinates in their tables and work with more complex shapes in translations.