Post 2

 As my student teaching continues, I am finding myself becoming much more confident in my ability to teach fractions. Some students in the class are still struggling with creating equivalent fraction and simplifying fractions, so my cooperating teacher has let me review and teach in small groups with specific students. We are using the rainbow method of finding the factors of the numerator and denominator in order to find the Greatest Common Factor. Some students are still struggling with that as well since some of their multiplication skills are a bit weak. After we work through that, we circle our GCF and divide our fraction by it. I remind them "whatever I do to the top, I do to the..." 

"bottom" they say

"Whatever I do to the bottom I do to the...."

"top" they say

I like to see that they actually understand what to do. I then ask them what our new numerator and our new denominator is. It takes them a second to figure out the division but they get there. And if they get stuck, I try to help them work it out by writing out the division for them to solve. 

I feel most of the students who are struggling aren't taking the time to write everything out. If they get stuck on something, they seem to accept defeat and just guess. My cooperating teacher and I remind them that it is ok to get stuck but you need to work your way through it. Take the time to write out all the factors, circle the GCF, write out the division of the fraction, and on the side, work out any division you may not be sure of in your head. 

They are starting this week how to convert improper fraction to mixed numbers and vice versa so I am curious in seeing how they do. They need to trust what they know and work through the problems

Comments

  1. Jackie BauerJanuary 31, 2022 at 6:24 PM

    Hi Kelly!
    Although I consider myself to be pretty good at math, fractions was and continues to be that one topic that always stumped me. Being that I find it hard to figure out myself, I am not too confident that I would be able to teach it in a way that makes sense to the students. Since you find yourself becoming more confident with fractions, do you have any helpful tips in language that should be used to help teach the students or any resources you used to help build your confidence in this are that I may be able to benefit from as well?

    Thank you!!
    Best,
    Jackie Bauer

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  2. Professor BromleyFebruary 6, 2022 at 2:20 PM

    Kelly, I'm very glad to hear you working in small groups with the students, and that you are gaining confidence! Also, I love that you applaud their perseverance, after all we need to make mistakes to truly learn. Like anything, it takes a different amount of time to truly embrace something new, it takes work until it "clicks" in our own brains. You see you're not alone in your journey!

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