Satisfaction With Fractions

We have just finished week 4 in math class and things are still going very well. My practicum has given me the opportunity to see how students math proficiency is assesses, as the students in my practicum class have had math assessments on both days of my placement. This has been a good experience thus far because I have been able to look at some of the student’s tests and see how the teacher grades the assessment, according to the marking rubric. It has also given me the opportunity to see some of the different ways that students approach particular math questions. I found it very interesting that some students are very particular with showing their work and other do not do this but they still get the answers correct.  I struggle with this because I think it leaves teachers in a dilemma. If a student consistently gets his or her answers right but doesn’t show their work, do we mark it wrong? Do we give part marks? I know that showing your work is an extremely important thing to do in math but not every student will do this. We unfortunately do not live in a perfect world. So, do we suggest that if the student doesn’t show their work, they do not understand the material or the expectations? Is the student just lazy? That is some food for thought.

The only downside to my practicum thus far, is that I haven’t had the opportunity to see how my practicum teacher teaches the math material. Hopefully when we are back in our observation period I will have the opportunity to see my practicum teacher’s instructional methods before I begin my full-time placement in her class. Thankfully, our math class has been very informative and highly beneficial thus far, so I feel more confident about teaching math.

I really enjoyed our last class. We read the Hershey’s book on fractions. I think that this is an excellent resource for teachers to help their students work with and understand fractions. Having chocolate bars as a manipulative to work with fractions is genius. Students get to see visual representations so that they can understand how fractions work and get the chance to work through it with their peers and demonstrated their understanding. We also used other manipulatives such as the ones shown below, to work with fractions and see how many different manipulatives can be used to help students gain a deeper understanding of how to work with various types of fractions. The egg carton was another strategy used as a visual representation to increase students understanding on how fractions work. As we add and remove eggs to the carton, students can figure out that 6 eggs in a carton of 12 equals ½, ect.

 As teachers, it is important for us to give students visual representations and come up with questions that are open-ended. This gives the students the opportunity to engage in discussion about the problem with their peers and while this is happening, the teachers can assess the students understanding of the problems and provide them with feedback.