Lesson Background Information

Name: Keanna Lamont Date:

rd
Grade: 3 grade Lesson Length: 40 minutes
Content Area: Mathematics Lesson Topic: Fraction Equivalency
Purpose:

The purpose of this 40-minute lesson is for 3rd grade students to gain a better
understanding of fractions and their equivalency. This lesson would be conducted
after fractions have been initially introduced to students, and would continue the
development of the idea of fractions. With the accompanying worksheet representing
different factions within proportional visual representations, students can get a clear
understanding of the equivalency of fractions before moving on to further skills with
manipulation and equivalency of fractions. The lesson will be accessible to all students
and will identify specific vocabulary to be focused on for ELL students.

Content/Common Core Standards:

This lesson meets many of the Common Core Mathematics standards having to do
with Number and Operations Fractions. The prerequisite understanding of fractions,
meets the standard CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.1 which states Understand a
fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal
parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b. This
lesson focusses on the standard 3.NF.A.3 which states, Explain equivalence of
fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size. More
specifically, the lesson touches upon standard 3.NF.A.3.A, Understand two fractions
as equivalent (equal) if they are the same size. Finally, the lesson begins to build
towards the standard 3.NF.A.3.B which states, Recognize simple equivalent fractions.
Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model. This
understanding is supported by students being challenged to begin recognizing
equivalent fractions using the visual models provided on worksheets.

WIDA Can-Do Descriptors

WIDA Can-Do DescriptorsThe following descriptors were adapted from the WIDA
(World---Class Instructional Design and Assessment) English Language Development
Standards. Based on their current level of English Language proficiency, English
Language Learners can do the following, with support:

Listening
Level 2 (Beginning) Categorize content-based pictures or objects from oral
descriptions.
Level 3 (Developing) Follow multi-step oral directions.
Level 4 (Expanding) Interpret oral information and apply to new situations.
Level 5 (Bridging) Draw conclusions and construct models based on oral
discourse
Speaking
Level 2 (Beginning) Restate content-based facts.
Level 3 (Developing) Make predictions or hypotheses from discourse.

Level 4 (Expanding) Offer creative solutions to issues/problems.

Level 5 (Bridging) Explain phenomena, give examples and justify responses
Reading
Level 2 (Beginning) Locate, classify, identify facts and explicit messages
Level 3 (Developing) Use context clues to determine meaning of words
Level 4 (Expanding) Interpret information or data
Level 5 (Bridging) Draw conclusions from explicit and implicit text

Instructional/Content Objective: Language Objectives for students at WIDA

All students will be able to ELD levels 2-4:

Students of all levels of English Language Students will be able to orally evaluate

proficiency will demonstrate the equivalency of two fractions using the

understanding of equivalency of fractions tier-3 vocabulary words equivalent,

through oral description and written numerator, and denominator and the

expression of accompanying worksheet comparative conjunctions similar/the

showing visual representations of same and different/distinct while using

fractions. Students will be able to identify, correct sentence formation by filling

analyze, and decide if two factions are out a worksheet during the lesson.

equivalent based on this understanding.

Key Content Vocabulary:
Equivalent Fractions whose numerators
and denominators are in the same ratio
and can be reduced to the same simple
fraction.
Numerator The term in a fraction above
the line that shows the number of equal
Level 2 and 3: (first attached
worksheet) Students at a Levels 2
and 3 will be able to complete the
activity with additional scaffolds
reminding them of the definition of
numerator, denominator, and
equivalent
Level 4: (second attached

parts described worksheet) Students at a Level 4 will

be able to complete the activity with

Denominator The term in a fraction additional scaffolds reminding them

below the line that shows the total of the definition of equivalent

number of equal parts which a unit is Level 5: (third attached worksheet)

divided Students at a Levels 5 will be able to

complete the activity with instructions
giving the word equivalent without
the definition

Materials:

White Board
White Board Markers
Pencils
Red pens/different colored markers
Accompanying worksheets for each WIDA level

Prerequisite Knowledge:

Students will have previously discussed the meaning of fractions and how they are
represented. They will have learned that the numerator is the number above the line in
a fraction that shows how many equal parts you are describing, and the denominator
is the number below the line on the fraction that describes how many equal parts the
unit is divided into. Students will have already worked on creating these fractions,
using concrete and visual representations with shapes and on number lines. This
knowledge will be applied to begin to understand equivalency and to analyze similar
fractions.

Instructional Procedure
The activities below should reflect the targeted language and content
objectives for this lesson.

Duration Description
7 minutes Introduction:

Throughout the lesson, I will use slow language that is enunciated,

slowing down and repeating as seems necessary based on the students
involvement and engagement levels.

The lesson will begin with all the students sitting on the rug facing a
white board for the teacher to instruct. I will begin by telling the students
the objectives, saying, Today we are going to be learning more about
fractions, specifically we will be talking about equivalent fractions, and by
the end of the lesson you will be able to tell me what an equivalent
fraction is and how to write one.

To begin the lesson, I will first review the essential information about
fractions previously learned during math lessons.

I will draw the fraction on the board and draw a circle that is cut in half
by a horizontal line, with of the circle shaded in. I will begin by asking
the students, Does anyone remember what the numbers in a fraction
are called?

Students will respond giving the definitions, depending on the answer, I

will affirm or redirect students by saying, Correct! The top number in our
fraction is called the numerator and the bottom number in our fraction is
called the denominator.
I will label the 1 on the board as the numerator and the 2 on the board
as the denominator.

Now who remembers what the numerator represents? Students will

give sample answers, such as how many parts, how many we color,
how many jumps on a number line, etc.

I will affirm these definitions and remind students that our official
definition of numerator is a term in a fraction above the line that shows
the number of equal parts described.
I will then repeat the same process asking students what the
denominator represents, fielding student answers and reminding them
that our official definition is the term in a fraction below the line that
shows the number of equal parts which a unit is divided.

I will then direct the students attention to the fraction and visual
representation of on the board. I will say, Now we see here that we
have a circle. Imagine this circle is your favorite type of pie, pizza, or
other favorite circular food that you are going to be sharing with your
family or friends. I will ask students to, turn and tell the person sitting
next to them what type of food you are going to be sharing, and to start
thinking of how many people are going to be eating this food.

I will redirect the students and draw their attention to the fraction, saying,
The fraction tells us that we have 2 equal parts to split the food into, and
the 1 tells us how many parts we need, in this case that we colored in.

I will ask students to tell me how comfortable they are with this concept
by saying, Give me a thumbs up if you feel like you understand this, or a
thumb in the middle if you might need a little more practice. I will make
note of how many students demonstrate that they are comfortable with
the topic of fractions, and I will make note of which students think they
 need more work, and I will be sure to check in with these students during
the activity.

25 minutes During the Lesson:

Finally, I will introduce the topic of todays lesson. Ok so today we are

going to be talking about equivalent fractions, does anyone think they
know what equivalent means? A helpful hint for some of you is that a
word that sounds the same in Spanish is equivalente.

I will write the words equivalent means on the board as the students
give their responses for what they believe it means. If the students get
the answer beforehand, I will reinforce it, however if they do not I will
explain further.

Does equivalent sound like another word we know? Students will

provide guesses. I will reinforce by saying, another word for equivalent
is equal. When two fractions are equivalent this means that they can be
reduced to the same simple fraction or they occupy the same amount of
space in a figure or on a number line. Here is an example, 2/4 (I will write
the fraction 2/4 on the board and will draw an identical circle on the
board split into four equal parts by a vertical and horizontal line) What
does this fraction mean?

I will wait for the students to respond that it means that the food is split
into four equal parts and we are going to shade in two of those parts.

Now if we were going to split your food into equal pieces would you
want to have of the food or 2/4 of the food?

Students will raise their hand and saying which one they would prefer.
Well the two circles are shaded in the same amount so that means that
they are equivalent. No matter which way you split the food, you are
getting the same amount! So are these fractions the same or different?
Can 2/4 represent the same amount as ? I will give students a
moment to respond. I will then prompt students by saying, Who can tell
me the whole sentence about whether these two fractions are the
same? Students will give their responses which I will either reinforce or
redirect, reminding students, we can say that 2/4 is the same (or similar
to) .

Now what if we have three fourths instead of two? Are these to circles
equivalent? Students will respond no. Yes these circles are not filled
in the same amount so they are not equivalent. We can also say that
is different from , so they are not equivalent. As the lesson continues, I
will continue to emphasize this language by saying that two fractions are
similar and different. If students struggle with the correct formation of the
sentence, I will redirect them to reinforce the correct formation and
vocabulary.

Next I will draw two more circles on the board, one broken into thirds and
one broken into sixths. I will write the fractions, 2/3 and 4/6 on the board.
I will ask for two students to volunteer to represent the fractions by
coloring in the correct number of equal parts.

Two students will come to the board, color in the correct representations
of 2/3 and 4/6. Once the students have finished, I will ask the rest of the
class, are these two fractions equivalent? (students will respond yes)
How do you know that they are? I will choose a student to give an
explanation, and depending on their answer I will reinforce the reasoning
or remind students of the definition of equivalency and give that as an
accurate reason why we know the two fractions are equivalent. I will also
ask the student to correctly use the sentence formation of two fractions
being similar or different.
 I will tell students, Now we are going to go back to your small groups
(that have already been pre-established by WIDA levels) to complete a
worksheet about equivalent fractions. Try to do the problems by yourself,
but raise your hand if you need help from me or you can work with the
other members at your table to try to see if fractions are equivalent and
see how many of one fraction you need to make a fraction equivalent.
Remember that working with other people to figure out a problem is a
good learning strategy that you can use in the future. When everyone
finishes the worksheet we will go over it as a class.

The students will be separated into different groups based on their WIDA
levels. Each group will receive the same worksheet, however different
WIDA level worksheets will include different supports for students to
remind students of important information and to support their learning as
a scaffold.
Students will go to their small groups and receive the appropriate
worksheets. The students will complete the worksheets individually and
as a group. During the lesson, I will walk around to the different groups
and check on students progress, making note of any students who
appear to be struggling. In the beginning of the worksheet I will talk to
students who indicated during the thumbs up comprehension check that
they were not fully comfortable with the idea of fractions and their
equivalency. I will support these students as they need additional
explanation, and I will ask them to explain their answers so that I can be
sure that they fully understand the reasoning behind the equivalency,
rather than a surface level understanding. I will continue to check with
each group, addressing any questions or issues that arise, supporting
students and giving reminders for when the activity should be completed.

8 minutes Closing:

For the closing part of this activity, I will review the answers to the
worksheet with the whole class. Although different WIDA levels received
worksheets containing different supports, all students will have been
given the same problems.

I will remind students, remember when we are correcting a worksheet,

we use a different color than the color of our pencil, such as a red pen or
a marker.

One by one, I will go through the problems, asking the students to say
out loud the equivalent fractions. If any question seems to be particularly
hard, or multiple students got it wrong or had flawed reasoning, I will
direct students attention to the white board where we will do the problem
together on the board. If this is necessary, I will ask students again to tell
me how they know that the fractions are equivalent to be sure that the
students have a deep conceptual understanding of the topic.

After reviewing the answers to the worksheet, I will remind students once
again of our lesson objectives and do an overall comprehension check.
Remember today we were going to learn what equivalent fractions are
and how to write that two fractions are equivalent. How does everyone
feel about that? Give me a thumbs up if you think you understand this, if
you need a little more help, or if you really dont understand. I will take
note of the students responses to see if there should be further
instruction in the future.

Once the worksheet answers have been discussed as a class, I will tell
students, tonight your homework will be similar and will involve
equivalent fractions. If you have any questions, we will talk about this
more tomorrow during our math lesson. Try your hardest with the
homework and we are going to continue to work with equivalent fractions
and see some of the cool ways we can create them. Good work
everyone, now you can put your worksheets in your math folder to take
home with you if you need extra help tonight.
Homework/Extension Activities

This activity will be followed up by a homework assignment testing the students

knowledge of equivalent fractions. Further lessons for this activity could be created,
slowly having students take more responsibilities for creating equivalent fractions,
eventually having students understand equivalent fractions only through the
representations of the abstract algorithm of fractions, rather than having assistive
visual aids. The topic can also be related to many different ideas including fractions
and other mathematical topics.
Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________

Remember our definitions of Fractions:

1 Numerator: how many equal parts we have (we color)

2 Denominator: the number of equal parts the unit is divided

Write the correct number so that the two fractions are equivalent. Remember two
fractions are equivalent when they represent the same ratio (color in the same
amount of the circle)
Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________

Write the correct number so that the two fractions are equivalent. Remember two
fractions are equivalent when they represent the same ratio (color in the same
amount of the circle)
Name: ___________________________________ Date: _______________

Write the correct number so that the two fractions are equivalent.
 To be written on board during instruction

To be written on board during instruction