George Mason University

Graduate School of Education

I.

Objectives

State what students will be able to do as a result of this experience.

List national, state, or local objectives, if possible.

II.

Virginia SOL
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2.3AIdentifythepartsofasetand/orregionthatrepresentfractionsforhalves,thirds,
fourths,sixths,andeighths,andtenths.

Materials for Learning Activities

List the texts, equipment, and other materials to be used by the students.
I.

Anchor chart, markers, and different manipulatives for students to use to represent the fraction.

List the materials, including equipment or technology used by the teacher in presenting the
experiences.
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III.

Students will be able to identify and display parts of a set and region to represent fractions.

Smart board to present the question, manipulatives, anchor chart, and marker.

Procedures for Learning Activities

Introduction (2-3mins)
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Bring students to the carpet and review fractions: What is a fraction? What does it tell us? What
does the bottom number mean? What does the top number mean?
What are some ways we can represent a fraction other than using just numbers?
What are some ways we, as mathematicians, recorded in our journals to represent a fraction?

Instructional strategies (15-20mins)

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Before discussing what we will be working on today, review the expectations I have for the
students.
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I expect quality student working. What does a quality student look and sound like?
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Explain to students that they will be working in groups and I expect them all to work as a
team, collaborate, listen to one another, ask questions if they do not understand and
share the materials given to them.
III.
Tell students that during the time they are working in their groups I will be walking
around observing them and asking them to explain what they are doing. Students are
expected to continue working until I get to them. If you finish early, you may flip over
your chart paper and represent the given fraction on the board in as many ways as you
can.
Students will be given this question on chart paper with varied fractions (each group will have a
different fraction): What do you know and what can you tell me about 3/8? Record it on paper
and show me with materials.
I.
Explain to students that once they have discovered a way to represent the fraction they
are to share their thinking with their group.
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Students will record everyones work and thinking on the anchor chart by displaying
different ways to represent the fraction.
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Students will work in groups of 3, which are pre-selected based varied ability.
During this time the teacher will be walking around, observing how the students represent the
fraction they were given and if they are able to explain why they chose to represent it in a
particular way.
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I will ask the student if they represented the fraction in all possible ways. If they think
they have, I will ask them how could they represent the fraction with more than words

II.

Summary
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III.

that state the fraction? Can you use multiple shapes to represent the same fraction or
only one?
I will try to focus student on the task at hand, by asking them questions to get them
thinking and more engaged in the problem.
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What have you learned or found out today?
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Can you break up this number and represent it individually?
III.
Can you explain what you have done so far? What else is there to do?
IV.
Why did you decide to use this method?

After students have finished their problem they will participate in a gallery walk to see other
students work and thinking on how their fraction could have been represented (3-5mins).
The teacher will also pull and display pre-selected student samples and call those groups to the
front to explain their thinking on representing the fraction (5mins).
I.
Throughout the past two weeks students have been working with fractions and practicing
representing them in different ways (pictorially, word problems, numbers and words).
Once the pre-selected groups have presented the students will take a seat on the carpet and
reflect on what we learned today.
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What did we do today? Why did we do this?

How do you plan to use each of the five practices for orchestrating productive discussions in
your teaching?
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Anticipating
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I think students will jump right into representing the number with pictures and numbers
because that is something they are most familiar with.
II.
How might each of the three representations be used to solve this problem?
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Concrete- using manipulatives to represent the fraction.
II.
Pictorial- using shapes and shading to represent the fraction.
III.
Abstract- creating a single-step or multiple-step word problem that incorporates
the fraction or uses it as an answer.
Monitoring
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I will be looking for the students to use more than one representation (concrete, pictorial,
and abstract) to show their given fraction.
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What questions will you ask to support students as they problem solve?
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Can you explain what you have done so far?
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Have you thought of all of the possibilities? How can you be sure?
III.
What questions will you ask to focus student thinking on key mathematical ideas?
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Could we use multiple words to express this number?
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How could we use multiple words to represent this fraction? Could we create a
story with this fraction?
III.
How can we use materials to show this fraction?
Selecting
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I will be looking for 3 examples that represent concrete, pictorial and abstract thinking
and representation.
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This will help the students to reach their objective because they will see three specific
and different ways that the fraction can be represented.
Sequencing
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I will first present the concrete, then pictorial, and then abstract because I think most
students are used to seeing numbers represented concrete and pictorially, but not
abstractly.
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I will first present the pictorial display of the fraction because students are used to see
fractions represented in this way. I will then present the concrete and abstract displays
because these are ways the students have not seen a fraction represented as much.
Connecting
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The work samples are connected to each other because they all represent the fractions,
but in different ways (manipulatives, pictures, or word problems).
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The work samples are directly related to the learning objective because they show the
students the different ways a number can be represented.

IV.

Assessment

Outline the procedures and criteria that will be used to assess each of the stated objectives.
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V.

Differentiation
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VI.

Students will write/draw or represent their thinking with manipulatives for the teacher to see.
Students will also orally explain their thinking to one another and a few will share to the whole
class.
The teacher will assess the students with anecdotal notes throughout the lesson.
What particular challenges might the task present to struggling students or students who are
ELLs? How will you adapt the
I.
Content
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Presenting the problem out loud and in written form.
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Process
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Manipulatives to represent the possible solutions.
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Allowing the students to think-pair-share with their group throughout the allotted
time given to work in their groups.
III.
Product
I.
Allowing the students to express their thinking and the way they want to
represent the fraction (writing, drawing, manipulatives, etc.)

Technology Integration

Smart board to display directions/steps.