Fractions

I’ve been working with some grade 8 students, supporting their understanding of fractions. We have been using various representations and manipulatives to help. Today I brought Cuisinaire rods, and we used concept circles.

We used 12 as our “1” and represented a variety of fractions based on that. I wrote the fractions and the students needed to place the blocks.

The second time we cleared the values in each segment, put different blocks in each section, and then the students needed to write down the fraction.

Finally we tried it again using the 10 rod as our “1” which pushed their thinking. By changing what the “whole” is, each block takes on a different meaning. When the whole is 12, each white block is 1/12 since it takes 12 white blocks ro build the whole. When the whole is 10 each white block is 1/10, since it takes 10 white blocks to build the whole.

Students are starting to engage more, and respond well to the manipulatives. We are working on conceptual understanding and filling in some gaps in both skills and confidence. It’s been a fun challenge!