Picture This: Fractions, the real F word

Fractions - another one of those things that send shivers down the spines of adults who never EVER have to see them again, right?

Well, sure. Unless you use a measuring tape. Or cook or bake - especially if you decide to double or *gasp* halve a recipe.

I think we can all agree that fractions HAVE a place in the real world. So why in the world do we allow our students to hate them so much?

Fractions are seen earlier and earlier in elementary math these days and for good reason: we don't need to hide concepts from kids. Every single child understands what half a sandwich looks like (and can probably tell you if their brother just got the "bigger half"...which can't be a thing, but I digress...)

What do you, as a parent or tutor or homework helper, need to know about fractions in elementary school? I'm going to explore a few different strategies for fraction work in a series of videos. Starting with pictures.

If you're out there trying to help a kid in your life with fractions, please encourage them to draw a picture. They may whine (when don't they?) but you'll get to see how they're imagining the problem and hopefully steer them in the right direction.

Comments

Homework = Tears? What's the upstream problem?

Tell me if you've heard this one before... Parent and child at the table working on child's homework. Child becomes frustrated and begins to cry Parent becomes equally (or more) frustrated by the tears/the assignment/both. Sound familiar? It's pretty common, but let's ask a new question - what's the upstream problem? Not familiar with the idea of "upstream problems"? It was new to me until very recently - but the best description I've heard is this: There's a town in which every evening a child washes up on the banks of the local river. Every day the fire department rescues the child and is lauded as heroes. One day a new fire chief takes ov...

Keep, Borrow, Change...Right?

Subtraction - Take Aways - Whatever you call it this is the first "big" hurdle for many students in a long race of mathematics. It turns out that this first hurdle is often the first time parents seem to get beyond frustrated with the MANY ways students are presented with solving a subtraction problem. All of the skills you'll see in this video are essentially shortcuts that many discover on their own through mental math and practice. By presenting them to students at a young age they become more and more comfortable with numbers and their reasoning and number sense improves overall. Enjoy!

Cognitive Dissonance - adapting to new information

The last year or so has shown us all a lot about the world we live in and the people we share it with. It's interesting to see how tightly individuals may cling to ideas or beliefs that have later been shown to be inaccurate and have been updated. That's the scientific method in a nutshell - make a prediction, test it, learn something, adjust. Math works the same way, but I'm seeing that the "adjust" step is becoming harder and harder for students to make. I had an experience in my Algebra class that sort of outlined the apparent push to reject what is proven in favor of what makes us comfortable (more about that in the video) and it got me thinking. This whole math education thing (or compulsory schooling in general) isn't about cramming kids' heads full of information. It's more about opening them up to conflicting ideas (cognitive dissonance for all you psychology/education fans out there) and giving them the tools to determine true from false, fac...

Demystifying Elementary Math (from a Secondary Perspective)

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