Showing posts with label free. fractions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free. fractions. Show all posts

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Equivalence tiles app and Which one does not belong?

I stumbled across this free app the other day and downloaded it to check it out.  Although  it is designed to be used by elementary students , it could be used by middle school students who need some help with fractions, decimals and percents.  It has blocks from 1/2 to 1/12 with the equivalent percents and decimals located below each fraction tile.  The space available is the whole unit so if you want students to see 1/2 + 1/3 they can do it but if you want 3/4 + 1/3, you have a problem.  I like that you can use any of the three representations but again it is designed for younger students so it is not an app I would use in the high school.
During warm-ups, I sometimes use a problem called "Which one does not belong?".  I give a list of 4 choices such as xy, x^2z, x^2y, xy^2.  Students then have to justify their choice.  For instance, they might say x^2z because it is the only one with the variable z or xy because neither of the variables is squared.  This gives them a way to justify why they made the choice they did.  The state tests here often have questions which require students to justify their answers and this gives them a way to practice while developing higher order thinking skills.