Help ME Learn Fractions

[medawyn]

I just don't understand fraction math well enough to teach it.  Fortunately I have some time before we have to dig in, but I'd like to deepen my understanding in order to be a competent teacher.  I don't mind a resource aimed at elementary students.  I have Key to Fractions, which is fine for reviewing the procedures but didn't help deepen my understanding.  I have Life of Fred Fractions which is... bad.  Other suggestions?

[Slache]

Look at Math Mammoth dark blue. I've used it for other math subjects with success.

[LostintheCosmos]

I've learned a lot from Elementary Mathematics for Teachers.

[wathe]

I liked Cuisenaire rods for this.

Education Unboxed videos were good to start.

I like the NZmaths pages for more depth and examples - particularly for demonstrating multiplication and division with fractions.

[8filltheheart]

I havent used this, but maybe Hands on Fractions? I  really like HOE, so if the quality is equal, it should be good.

[Lecka]

I have liked Education Unboxed a lot for fractions.  

[8filltheheart]

Along square's answer, I teach my kids fractions, ratios, percentages, and decimals all interconnect. If you think of how you can manipulate the numbers back and forth, it helps to demystify them and how numbers relate to each other.  The / line simply represents the division symbol. Percentages are a number representation of a decimal or a number divided by 100, etc. Thinking big picture and working into details might help clarify things for you.

[ScoutTN]

21 hours ago, 8FillTheHeart said:

Along square's answer, I teach my kids fractions, ratios, percentages, and decimals all interconnect. If you think of how you can manipulate the numbers back and forth, it helps to demystify them and how numbers relate to each other.  The / line simply represents the division symbol. Percentages are a number representation of a decimal or a number divided by 100, etc. Thinking big picture and working into details might help clarify things for you.

This is so true! I was taught math very procedurally as a kid, but needed to see the big picture. When I studied and relearned to be able to teach my kids the light bulb lit up as everuthing connected and it was so exciting! 

Edited May 11, 2020 by ScoutTN

[EKS]

I would get Elementary Mathematics for Teachers, read it, and do the suggested problems (from Singapore math).  I recommend doing all of it because it all interrelates (in other words, don't just do the fraction parts). 

(If you can, you might want to keep going through Algebra 1 using a text that deals with algebraic fractions (Jacobs and Lial do), because that is a good way to really cement things, and it will make you an even better teacher of elementary math.)

Edited May 15, 2020 by EKS

[jboo]

The chapters on fractions in Liping Ma's "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics" are surprisingly clear -- terrific explanations of fractional division, for example. The book wasn't really written to teach math, rather contrasting the Chinese and American approach, but I certainly learned something here.

Key to Fractions is good as far as giving a large number of different exercises, and does an OK job explaining most things, but it completely fails to explain what fractional division means - telling you how to do it, but nothing about why or when you would do it.

[fourisenough]

I really understood fractions after working through (with my DD) this out-of-print book: Everything's Coming Up Fractions with Cuisenaire Rods by John Bradford. 
 

I bought another used copy when my youngest was a toddler just to have around for future use. That future is now! She just finished 5th grade, so she knows how to handle fractions procedurally, but this will help her see/understand what they really mean. She’s a kid who needs things to be done in that order— learn to do it first and understand it later. I think her anxiety/ADHD contribute to this. She’s stressed out by having to ‘discover’ anything or intuit via models. 

Edited May 13, 2020 by fourisenough

[ChrisB]

This can help: RightStart Fractions

ETA: Here's a video: 

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by ChrisB