Developing Fraction Sense in the Elementary Grades – Fractions as Numbers

This two-part series will engage participants in activities and discussion designed to expand current perspectives and pedagogies around fraction understanding and fraction instruction in the elementary grades during remote and hybrid instructions. December 10 - Fractions as Numbers – Participants will discuss some of the inherent difficulties students have developing in-depth fraction understanding as well as potential reasons for those difficulties. This will necessitate an examination of possible precursor activities that build from whole number understandings to initial fractional understandings using mathematical operations and visual representations. December 17 - Relationships between Fractions – Participants will examine a variety of mathematical representations and models for fractions and discuss when, why, and how to encourage students’ experiences with and connections among those representations and models. Participants will also use the representations of fractions as a means to discuss relationships among and between fractions, including equivalence relationships. Finally, tasks and games will be shared wherein fraction understanding is developed and deepened!