Rotisserate?

One of my SpEd kids scored an 85 today on a math chapter test, which is a major achievement. Fred is quiet and thoughtful. Most of the time I think he's not paying attention, but then he surprises me with the correct answer. He has difficulty with reading, but not understanding--I need to remember that.

Today's test was on motion geometry--transformations, geometric patterns, and tessellations. We had done a tessellation activity earlier in the week. After the test, we did a more specific exploration. Students were given tag board and instructed to make a scalene triangle, trace it onto the pink and yellow sheets of paper I had provided, cut out the triangles, and see if they will tessellate. (And the activity was so messy--scraps of paper everywhere!) Fred was working with a group at the table and I overheard his instructions as I walked by: "You have to make a triangle and see if it will rotisserate." While it's a laughable error, it makes sense. You do have to spin the shapes around as you fit them together to see if you can find a tessellating pattern. But where did my Fred, who lives in the projects, ever hear the word "rotisserie"?