Clip 1/16: Adding and Subtracting Fractions Using a Line Plot PreLesson
Overview
Before teaching her lesson on adding and subtracting fractions using a line plot, Mallory Williamson anticipates how she thinks the lesson will go in conversation with a colleague. She shares that her 5th-grade students feel comfortable with using repeated addition but may be more challenged by using a model to represent the solution. They also may be challenged by wanting to multiply denominators, as opposed to renaming equivalent fractions before analyzing their data.
Teacher Commentary
Teacher Commentary
My students had already passed that stage of the standard when we did this, so they could tell you “Rename the denominator!” and all that stuff. They’re coming in from 4th grade. Now, I'm actually going into a 4th-grade classroom during my break, and the two of us are helping build a little bit of that foundation. The parts of the whole is very challenging, especially when we get into mixed numbers and having, you know—you write a mixed number as a fraction greater than one, and showing them where these parts come from.