Week 4 Reflection
This week in math we learned all about fractions, or more specifically how we can teach fractions. We started off by having some of our classmates present some learning activities about fractions to provide us with some interactive ways that we can teach it to students. My group did an activity that involved rolling dice to get fractions and then using operations to create equations that would end with particular results. We then also attempted a fractions problem using manipulatives to visualize the splitting of fractions.
At the beginning I was slightly hesitant about this session because fractions was one of the strands that I found very challenging while in school. I know now of course after three weeks of this class that it may in fact have had a lot to do with the teaching style of my teacher and not so much my ability to understand the concepts of fractions.
Almost all of the theories behind teaching various math strands so far have been ones that I will remember to use in my classroom. This week I felt was particularly important as I remember fractions in school being one of the strands that my classes always seemed to struggle with a lot. Until today it never occurred to me how well manipulatives could be used for fractions, as when I was in school they were almost exclusively used during number sense and numeration and the visualization of number columns. The use of them in class helped me immensely when we were given a question on dividing subs between students, as I could break apart the blocks into multiple sections to represent the "fifths" of each sub and divide them equally. This made me reflect on how much easier a lot of other math strands could have been for me had the teachers used more visual tools such as these.
While looking through our class slides, there was also a mention of creating a notebook for students to put in a number of different fraction references to use. One that I thought was good to use was drawing three different clocks each labelled with increments 1/2s, 1/3s, 1/4s etc. In my classroom this could be used as a way to visually help them add fractions together and understand the relationships between the numerator/denominator and size. The frequent use of posters such as the one above will be important in my classroom as well, as I can provide easily accessible resources to all of my students for a variety of strands at the same time.
For someone who struggled with fractions growing up, my biggest improvement after this week was realizing the importance of visualization. I think it will be much easier now for me to understand my student's struggles with conceptualizing concepts when they are not given any other aids. This can be applied to many strands outside of fractions as every strand can benefit from the addition of differentiated ways of explaining the required formulas, processes etc.
At the beginning I was slightly hesitant about this session because fractions was one of the strands that I found very challenging while in school. I know now of course after three weeks of this class that it may in fact have had a lot to do with the teaching style of my teacher and not so much my ability to understand the concepts of fractions.
Almost all of the theories behind teaching various math strands so far have been ones that I will remember to use in my classroom. This week I felt was particularly important as I remember fractions in school being one of the strands that my classes always seemed to struggle with a lot. Until today it never occurred to me how well manipulatives could be used for fractions, as when I was in school they were almost exclusively used during number sense and numeration and the visualization of number columns. The use of them in class helped me immensely when we were given a question on dividing subs between students, as I could break apart the blocks into multiple sections to represent the "fifths" of each sub and divide them equally. This made me reflect on how much easier a lot of other math strands could have been for me had the teachers used more visual tools such as these.
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| Lexia Jerdell. (2017). Fraction Wall [Online Photograph]. Retreived from https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/486036984766257895/ |
While looking through our class slides, there was also a mention of creating a notebook for students to put in a number of different fraction references to use. One that I thought was good to use was drawing three different clocks each labelled with increments 1/2s, 1/3s, 1/4s etc. In my classroom this could be used as a way to visually help them add fractions together and understand the relationships between the numerator/denominator and size. The frequent use of posters such as the one above will be important in my classroom as well, as I can provide easily accessible resources to all of my students for a variety of strands at the same time.
For someone who struggled with fractions growing up, my biggest improvement after this week was realizing the importance of visualization. I think it will be much easier now for me to understand my student's struggles with conceptualizing concepts when they are not given any other aids. This can be applied to many strands outside of fractions as every strand can benefit from the addition of differentiated ways of explaining the required formulas, processes etc.
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