ICTM Fall 2024 Conference

Building student understanding of fractions is an important part of Iowa Academic Standards for Mathematics at grades 3-6. This session will focus on Equal Sharing problems as a tool to develop students’ conceptual understanding of fractions. The goal of this session is to learn about the different strategies students use to solve Equal Sharing problems, the important mathematical concepts students investigate when solving these problems, and the impact of number choice. Participants will engage in solving Equal Sharing problems and analyzing student work. In the process of analyzing student work, participants will identify the important fraction concepts students develop with this problem-based approach to introducing fractions. This will engage participants in conversations regarding essential understandings of fractions. Along with analyzing student strategies, participants will analyze problems with respect to number choice and investigate the impact numbers have on student thinking. Teachers will leave with a summary of problems to try out with their students.