The purpose of this activity is for students to use the structure of the coordinate grid to communicate and draw shapes. Students work with a partner to replicate given rectangles. One partner uses precise language and describes the rectangles and the other draws them based on their partner's verbal description. Students repeat this procedure 3 times with a different set of rectangles:

• First, the rectangles are shown without a grid.
• Second, the same set of rectangles are shown on a grid.
• Thirdly, the rectangles are shown on a coordinate grid.

As they go through each round, students notice that a grid can be used to locate and describe a rectangle more precisely. Grid lines with numbers allow for even more precise descriptions (MP6).

This activity uses MLR2 Collect and Display. Advances: Conversing, Reading, Writing.

• “Here are some of the words and phrases you used as you worked with your partners.”
• “We may add additional words or phrases that are important to include on our display as we continue to share and discuss the activity. You could use the language on the display to explain your thinking.”
• As students share responses, update the display, by adding (or replacing) language, diagrams, or annotations.
• Ask previously selected students to explain their thinking.
• “How did the grid lines help you?” (They helped us draw the shapes more accurately.)
• “How did the numbers help you?” (We could use them to describe where the shape was located.)
• Display the image from the Warm-up: “This grid, with numbers labeling the grid lines, is called a coordinate grid. We are going to learn more about the coordinate grid in the next few lessons. How would you describe the coordinate grid?” (It has vertical lines with numbers on them and horizontal lines with numbers on them. It has squares on it. There are two of each number except 0. The horizontal and vertical lines intersect.)

The purpose of this activity is for students to use informal language and the structure of the coordinate grid to describe a given shape. Some questions may be about properties of the shape rather than its location. For example, “Is the rectangle wider than it is tall?” is a question that eliminates many shapes. As the number of shapes decreases, the location will become more important and the features of the coordinate grid will play a larger role. The Activity Synthesis gives students an opportunity to consider how the numbers in the coordinate grid can be useful to accurately describe the attributes, location, and orientation of a given shape (MP6).

• Ask previously identified students to share their reasoning.
• “How do the numbers help us locate shapes on the grid?” (I could use them to describe the lines and the points. I could also use numbers to describe the location of the shape: “Go up three. Go over 5.”)
• “The grid lines with numbers on them are called axes. The coordinate grid has a horizontal axis and a vertical axis.”