Ways To Teach Fractions In Middle School.

 

One quick way to find out if you middle school and high school students know fractions is to ask them to make a square that is 3.5 by 3.5.  I did that for art and a few of my students didn't know they should start at zero.  They ran their lines from one to three and something.  Others weren't sure where the 1/2 mark was, if there was no 1/2 written.  This showed me they didn't have a firm grasp of relating fractions to a ruler which acts as a number line.

Although, many of the methods mentioned are used in elementary school, they can be used in middle or high school with a bit of modification.  It is still highly recommended that students connect from concrete, to visual, to abstract for the best way to fully understand the topic.  We know that when students use physical and visual representations, it helps them build fluency.

One thing we often forget when teaching fractions is that in addition to being part of a whole, they are also units in and of themselves.  So the denominator is the unit and the numerator is the number of units. So when we see 3/2, it means three units that are say 1/2 inch wide.  It is also 1 1/2 or one whole and half of a whole so many fractions have multiple identities. The reason to show fractions on a number line is that it shows they can be counted.  It is important for students to understand that 1/denominator is the basic unit for this fraction.

Furthermore, it is important students understand equivalent fractions for instance, if you fold a paper in half and color in the half, it is the same area as if you folded a paper in four and colored in two of the squares, or folded it in eight and colored in four.  Although they look different, they are really the same amount.  In addition, this shows that there are multiple representations of the same number which is important for changing fractions so they have the same denominator.

Many of these activities can be done via paper folding, tape diagrams and circles, area models, and number lines so students see fractions as units and numbers, as equivalent fractions so they see that one fraction can be represented in more than one way, and then add, subtract, multiply, or divide fractions.  When I researched this, I ended up with some great ideas to help me provide scaffolded instruction for a young man who seems to have to idea on how to do fractions without a calculator.  So I will be applying them. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.