Begin fraction instruction with activities that involve dividing groups of objects equally¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

An implementable activity sequence in which students first divide sets of objects into equal shares. The presentation advises: "Begin with activities that involve dividing groups of objects equally," illustrated by a problem where four friends share 12 pretzels and each must get the exact number. Teachers then vary the number of sharers to require different partitioning.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Concrete or drawable objects students can count, draw, or distribute one by one

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• primary-grade students

Target Learning Goals¶

• equal sharing
• division into equal shares

Related Strategies¶

• Introduce unit fractions through partitioning a single object among sharers
• Use varied equal-partitioning problems to develop fraction comparison and equivalence
• Build on children's informal proportional understandings to prepare for ratio and proportion

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• The Conceptual Basis for Fractions. (2011). Developed at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under contract number ED-PEP-11-C-0068. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/