Three Big Ideas You Have Learned About Fractions Research

What are three big ideas you have learned about fractions from the standards and your coursework experiences? 1. The first big idea about fractions that I learned from coursework experiences is about how students have different ways of understanding fractions, and how to recognize and support that these understandings converge towards the same conceptual understanding. This was made especially cognizant to me in class when we looked at different sets of student work and evaluated them for understanding (Session 7). One of the students understood fractions in a very unique way – a way in which I personally would never solve the problem. He or she converted 5/8th into 2/4th and 1/8th and then compared that to 3/4th, from there they could conceptualize that 3/4th is larger than 5/8th. Conversely, I converted each fraction into a percentage and my partner John drew a number line. I think the important concept here is that we all arrived at the answer using a method that made that made the most sense to us. Furthermore, I believe that sharing different ways of solving problems will ultimately help all students

Another idea that I learned about teaching fractions is the importance of creating authentic experiences for our students in order to help them better understand fractions. Fractions can be difficult for students to conceptualize, but permeate the world in which our students live. I came to this conclusion in Session 6 when we broke into small groups and charted out all the different ways to represent 3/4th. For instance, our group came up with examples such as “Three out of four doctors agree, how much battery is left in your cell phone, how much health your Pokemon has left, how much of a football game has gone by, etc. Since fractions are so easy to see in our everyday life, it is imperative that we create learning material that taps into our students already embedded understand of fractions, and use that as a platform to better instruct our