Conceptual Fraction Tool That Rocks!

There are many books, lessons and activities out there that help students gain some conceptual understanding of fractions. Unfortunately most of these great activities require you to go out and buy manipulatives or spend hundreds of hours cutting up parts and making manipulatives. This site offers learners the chance to set up many different fractions visually so they can instantly compare and contrast what all this fraction nonsense is about.

The link is to Fraction Bars from Math Playground.
Fraction Bars

I am working with some learners right now that have no ability to compare fractions. With this tool I am watching in amazement as they are figuring out the roles of the numerator and denominator and easily seeing how each set of fractions are related to each other. From here I just need to offer a little formalized instruction on some syntax and procedures and the learners really understand fractions well.

A few hints on using the Fraction Bars. Having a prepared list of questions or challenges can be very effective in helping to guide student work. Even having a worksheet that asks students to compare a number of fractions or put them in order can be helpful to use with this tool. Simply directing them to the site and saying "try it out" will not accomplish much as there is little the student is given to do at the site. It is like a calculator, without some reason to use it, you are just pushing pretty buttons and watching the flashing lights. If you have some good fraction exploration questions please share in the comments so we can all work together to flesh out some great learning activities.

Sample ELA checklist completed

I thought ELA teachers might want a sample of our "first step" in addressing the CCRS in our lessons. I just made up this activity this morning on Superbowl Sunday and plugged it into the lesson plan checklist tool we have on the maineccrs.org site.

Link to the example checklist filled out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13HRtuN5DgIQVTXZc7oH-KBgNjTdv-DPRTT7Qwy8qnL4/edit?usp=sharing

Background: This activity would have students exploring a logically written article so the student could work on identifying how we distinguish from opinion to fact. Students would write up their rational about what parts of the article were fact and which fiction. Then students dive into the types of fallacies and take notes on them so they can then identify fallacies in an article on the topic. Students develop a 5 minute oral presentation in which they address the given article.

From here I would work with peers to get some critical review of my ideas and the key shift points I identified. Maybe a peer points out how my stated CCRS does not quite match the products students are creating. Maybe I need two or three CCRS put in on that form? What would this lesson look like fully fleshed out?

I have a template in the works and almost done up that all ELA and Math teachers can use so the lessons all have a standard arrangement to better enable all of us to be able to share and access work. Having a consistent format is helpful in looking for key information within resources shared. Do you have thoughts on this process?

CCRS Question for Assessment

As I continue to dive in and really learn the CCRS standards a discussion topic came up that I wish everyone to chime in on. One of the major differences between the CCRS and the CCS is that the CCRS is a more limited scope of the CCS. I am finding that the committee that designed the CCRS have sometimes bundled a number of CCS into one umbrella standard that is now simply referenced by a single CCRS. As an example, take a look at this standard from Level D Math. Fractions D5 Standard Link (you may have to zoom in as the text has to be small on this card)

As you look over this standard, note how there are actually 7 CCS standards all in this one CCRS standard.

My question to you centers around how you might want to assess standards like this?


I see two camps,

Camp A takes on the rational that if my students meet a majority of the items listed in a CCRS then they get credit for it.






Camp B notes that each of those sub skills are important and a student would need to meet all of them before getting the credit for that CCRS.




Which camp are you in and why? (Please note we are being metaphorical with the tents and we are not soliciting your choice of tents. Rather, we would love to hear your view on how we best assess CCRS that are composites of multiple CCS)