Process
Each day, ask students to go the board to read and write some fractions. Encourage them to make themselves at home, to look around at other students’
work, to stand beside someone who is good at math, to get a long piece of chalk, and so on. They should do whatever they need to be comfortable at the board.
Especially, make sure there is an eraser between every pair of students. If a student has to ask for an eraser, he calls attention to his error. We want him
to take a risk, so make sure he can quickly and quietly erase his answer if it is wrong.
Every day, the work follows the same pattern:
- As you call out the first instruction, students will write the fraction(s).
- Quickly look around and make sure that every response is correct, helping individuals as necessary.
- Ask students to look around to see if their answer is the same as everyone else’s. Different answers may be correct, and provide an opportunity to talk about the process.
- Repeat for each of the bulleted instructions on the day.
- Thank students for their participation and their excellent work, and invite them to sit down.
Day 1
- Think about all the people in the room. What fraction are men? Write that fraction. Write the fraction of people who are women.
What fraction are teachers? What fraction are students?
- Think about the people at the front board. What fraction are men? Write that fraction. Write the fraction of people at the front board who are women.
- Think about the people at the side board. What fraction are men? Write that fraction. Write the fraction of people at the side board who are women..
- Suppose there were twelve people in the room and half were women. Write a fraction with 12 on the bottom that shows the fraction of women in that room.
Correct. 6/12 is equivalent to 1/2.
- Suppose there were 100 people in the room and half were men. Write a fraction with 100 on the bottom that shows the fraction of men in that room.
Correct. 50/100 is equivalent to 1/2.
- Write five fractions equivalent to 1/2.
- I’ll give you three fractions, 1/2, 1/10 and 1/4. Write them in order from smallest to largest.
If you like, draw some diagrams or use the math tools.
- Thanks. You may sit down.