Students Understood: One student thought one unit, folded in would be 2 units I asked her if it was 2 wholes, we started with a whole, one unit. We folded it in half, so we have and which equals one unit. Some students were unsure how to fold their unit into 3 equal parts. Many thought we would fold our unit a little more than half, one student said fold the unit about half way and then wed fold the other side over it. Students were asked why we needed to fold our unit just less than way to get thirds only had one student attempt to answer he said, If we go half way theyre not going to be even. One student thought I could extend the line down to divide my thirds from the line I had drawn to divide my halves. Dividing a unit into four equal parts some students struggled knowing how we could divide it equally. Putting into decimal form, one student said two and 5 tenths. Students clearly knew each strip was considered a unit. Making two equal parts students knew to fold a unit in half by putting the 2 ends together and creasing in the middle. They knew a unit equaled one whole. Candy bar example if I spilt the candy bar with one other person vs. two other people students realized if you spilt the candy bar with more people, youll get less of the candy bar. Creating the division sentence of the fraction: 1 divided by 2 = , 1 divided by 3 = 1/3, one divided by 4 = 1/4. When drawing our thirds, I asked the class if I should just extend my line down from where I had drawn the previous fraction in half, one student answered yes, and the rest of the class said NO! Students could tell when parts were not equal either on their drawing or fraction strip. Many students did know how to divide a unit into 4 equal halves by first folding the unit in half and then dividing it in half again. Some students knew another name for - one knew a quarter. In terms of money, 25 cents. Decimal form = 0.25, twenty-five hundredths, Another name for same one student said the same, another said equivalent. MIAA 330 Voyer, Heather Error Analysis Paper
Error Analysis Reflection
The lesson I chose to record was taken from Fraction Camp that my co-worker participated in a few years ago, but I also found a similar one on the Internet from Bridges in Mathematic. However the one I found on the Internet was created for fourth grade, and I do teach fifth grade. But before students can really grasp fractions, they have to understand what a fraction is. Fraction Camp begins with this by allowing the students to explore what a fraction is and create their own fraction strips. We began the lesson with a 12-inch white strip that would become our unit. Due to the exploration period on what was a unit the day before, students clearly grasped that a unit was anything that made a whole. Next they were given a pink 12-inch strip and asked to discuss how we could create two equal parts out of this unit. Most students seemed to quickly grasp we could fold the unit in half by putting the two ends together and that would give us two equal parts. However, when it came to labeling our halves, one student asked if the two halves should be labeled as one unit. After explaining to this student that we started with one unit, and then we divided the unit into two equal parts, she was able to connect that and made one whole, a unit. I believe this misconception was a misunderstanding of the mathematical process. I think here I could have used an object for her to see or visualize this concept maybe a candy bar and talk to her about dividing the bar into two equal parts so wed both have the same. I used this example later in the lesson and students-even this student who originally struggled with this- was able to make the connection that if dividing a candy bar between two people, each person would receive of the bar. MIAA 330 Voyer, Heather Error Analysis Paper
This misconception of this student possibly tells me that she struggled with fractions in previous years. Halves are introduced in the primary grades I believe in second grade and the fact that she struggled with recognizing that and equaled one tells me she never really mastered this concept or fully understood fractions. Which is why I believe its valuable for students to have the hands-on exploration time of being able to create their own fraction strips and really think about a unit is and how to create a unit even at fifth grade. The next big misconception came with more that just one student. This occurred when students were asked to take their third strip and create three equal parts. After giving the students time to discuss and come up with ideas, many thought we should fold the strip about half way and then fold the other half over it. I was hoping students would be able to describe that we should fold our strip just less than half way because that would tell me they realized thirds would be smaller than halves. However, I had to help guide the students to this wording, just less than half way. Once we had the wording, most of them were able to explain the why behind it. I believe the students had the language to explain dividing our unit into thirds, but they had trouble pulling this language out and verbalizing it. Once it was heard, and wrote it, they could explain that thirds would be smaller than halves. During this misconception, I used a candy bar example with the students. The students easily grasped that if they were sharing the bar with just two people, they would get more candy than if they had to share it with three people. This told me students understood that thirds were less than halves. MIAA 330 Voyer, Heather Error Analysis Paper
As for the grade spans, in the primary grades of first and second, students are recognizing and matching equivalent fractions which is not a concept I was focusing on during this lesson. However, it is where I am heading, therefore, it is good head knowledge for me to know where students begin learning about equal fractions or fractions that take up the same space as we refer to them in fifth grade. Third grade is when students begin thinking and exploring halves, thirds, and fourths. During my fraction camp, this is where we started on the day I recorded my lesson. Most of my students appeared to have a fairly solid grasp on these three fractions and the misconceptions that did arise during the lesson could be clarified in a way I felt students were able to understand. As we continued fraction camp the following day, (even though I didnt record my lesson) we created fifths and sixths. Fifths was by far the most challenging for my students. Lastly, fifth grade has been known as the jumping off grade level that leads students into much deeper and more complex math from sixth grade and on, which is why I feel it is imperative for me as a fifth grade teacher to do my very best to ensure students conceptual understanding of fractions so they will be prepared for the next grade level and beyond.