Reflection on fractions, decimals and ratios Gr.

4-7
MIAA 350
3-18-14
Caroline Butler

I love the strip models! They make ratios make so much more
understandable than those abstract number comparisons! They make fractions and
the idea of portions within one visually comprehensible! They make percents make
sense! Where have they been all my life? I will not spend this reflection bemoaning
the lack of visual models in my own math education. Instead, I am inspired to
believe that I will indeed be able to help my fourth-grade son with his homework for
several more years!
I know that the fifth-grade teachers at my school do a lot with building visual
models for fractions with paper. I do not believe that the fourth or sixth grade
teachers do though. It is a shame that there isnt more continuity across the grades.
Perhaps they never really thought about how they could scaffold each other in terms
of how they present these portion-related concepts. They probably do not even
have place-value cubes to be able to do area models in their classrooms. It may be
worth mentioning to our principal that the intermediate teachers could use some
math manipulataves so that they actually have options for how to teach. If they
want to be able to transition the intermediate students to the Common Core DOK
levels these tools would probably be very helpful. The strip models can be done
with just paper and pencil however, and that visual alone could make the difference
between understanding and uncertainty for many students.
I think that I will be doing visual models of all these things with my son at
home, so that whether it is happening in the classroom or not, he will be able to use
them to show his understanding. I think it would have been helpful to him this
school year to have seen the visual models for multiplication and division. We will
definitely spend time over the school breaks having him practice concepts with
visual models.