2010-11 Engaging Students in Learning Mathematics Grant (6-8) Recipient

Helping Students Understand Fractions, Fraction Operations, and Fraction Uses

The overall goal of this grant is to help students become successful working with fractions and their operations. I find that in middle school fractions is one of the most difficult concepts for students to understand. There are several reasons that I feel lead to the struggles with fractions. They are students do not fully understand what fractions represent, students struggle to understand the development of steps to operations with fractions, most concepts taught orally rather than hands on, and no attachment to the real-world. I hope to bridge all these gaps through hands-on teaching, making fractions more real, and developing visual models to be in the classroom at all times, just to name a few.