A Focus on Fractions is a groundbreaking effort to make the mathematics education research on how students develop their understanding of fraction concepts readily accessible and understandable to pre- and in-service K– 8 mathematics educators. Using extensive annotated samples of student work, as well as vignettes characteristic of classroom teachers’ experiences, this book equips educators with the knowledge and tools to reveal students’ thinking so that they can modify their teaching and improve student learning of fraction concepts. A Focus on Fractions 2nd edition includes sections on the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and the Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) Fraction Framework integrated into each chapter as well as a new chapter on the OGAP Fraction Progression and how it can be used for formative assessment purposes. This updated edition assists teachers in translating research findings into their classroom practice by conveying detailed information about how students develop fraction understandings. Additional images and examples serve to flesh out and supplement the newly-introduced concepts in this updated and expanded edition. Special Features: Looking Back Questions at the end of each chapter provide teachers the opportunity to analyze student thinking and consider instructional strategies for their own students. Instructional Links help teachers relate concepts from the chapter to their own instructional materials and programs. Big Ideas frame the chapters and provide a platform for meaningful exploration of the teaching of fractions. Answer Key posted online offers extensive explanations of in-chapter questions. New sections devoted to the CCSSM and OGAP Fraction Progression are woven throughout the book as well as a new stand alone chapter on the OGAP Fraction Progression. The OGAP Fraction Framework is an all-new eResource, now available as a free download from the book’s website: www.routledge.com/9781138816442.

This popular text addresses the urgent need for curriculum materials that cross traditional boundaries to include many of the elements that are integrated in the teaching/learning enterprise: mathematics content, teacher understanding, student thinking, teaching methods, instructional activities, and assessment. The book pushes readers beyond the limits of their current understanding of rational numbers, challenging them to refine and explain their thinking--without falling back on rules and procedures they have relied on throughout their lives. Written in a conversational and easy to understand style, this is not a textbook as much as it is a resource book. An underlying assumption is that facilitating teacher understanding using the same questions and activities that may be used with children is one way to help teachers build the comfort and confidence they need to begin talking to children about complex ideas. Unlike a textbook that is used to study formal theory and then discarded when it comes to putting ideas into practice, the many problems and activities included to facilitate teacher learning are valuable resources for use in elementary and middle school classrooms. Changes in the second edition include: *even more student work incorporated in every chapter; *discussion of the connectivity between the topics addressed in the book and the elementary and middle school mathematics curricula; *an increased emphasis on measurement; *expansion of some topics, including number sense, percent, scale factors, similarity, and linear graphs; *clarification of the characteristics of ratio and proportions and how to use these to generate discussion with children; and *content-related interview questions for exploring children's thinking. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and curriculum developers in mathematics education, pre-service and in-service teachers of mathematics, those involved in the mathematical and pedagogical preparation of mathematics teachers, and graduate students in mathematics education. The methods and activities it includes have been tested with students in grades 3-8 and with pre-service and in-service teachers and other adults. This text is accompanied by MORE--a supplement that is not merely an answer key but a resource that includes in-depth discussions of all the problems in the text; develops and extends discussion of the issues, teaching problems, and other considerations raised in the chapters; and contains additional problems--with and without solutions--that instructors may find helpful for assessment purposes.

"This resource combines current research and practical strategies to support teachers in understanding and addressing the most common misconceptions that students have about fractions and presents opportunities to help students investigate, discuss, revise, expand, and refine their understanding of fractions. Includes reproducibles, bibliography, and index"--

For over a decade, Teaching Fractions and Ratios for Understanding has pushed readers beyond the limits of their current understanding of fractions and rational numbers, challenging them to refine and explain their thinking without falling back on rules and procedures they have relied on throughout their lives. All of the material offered in the book has been used with students, and is presented so that readers can see the brilliance of their insights as well as the issues that challenge their understanding. Written in a user-friendly, conversational style, this text helps teachers build the comfort and confidence they need to begin talking to children about fractions and ratios. The clear distillation of complex ideas and the translation of research into usable ideas for the classroom make this text a valuable resource for all pre- and in-service mathematics teachers. The highly anticipated third edition of this popular text has been heavily expanded and reorganized to make the connectivity of topics even more transparent, including more mathematics content, teaching/reasoning techniques, classroom activities, connections to other content, and applications to everyday life. In addition, the most effective features from previous editions have been retained. Special Features: Children’s Strategies and samples of student work are provided in each chapter for teacher analysis. Activities for practicing the thinking strategies explained in each chapter, designed to be solved without rules or algorithms, using reasoning alone. Online Resources for Instructors including a sample syllabus, chapter overviews and relevant Big Content ideas for each chapter, and graphics that can be copied and resized for use in instruction and in constructing exams. An equally valuable component of this text is MORE! Teaching Fractions and Ratios for Understanding, Third Edition---a supplement that is not merely an answer key but a resource that provides the scaffolding for this groundbreaking approach to fraction and ratio instruction. Also heavily expanded, MORE! includes in-depth discussions of selected problems in the main text, supplementary activities, Praxis preparation questions, more student work, and templates for key manipulatives.

More is not an answer key but a resource that provides the scaffolding for the groundbreaking approach to fraction and ratio instruction presented in its companion text, Teaching Fractions and Ratios. Keeping the focus on the reasoning needed to properly understand and teach rational numbers, More shows teachers how to engage in powerful ways of thinking so that they can, in turn, enhance the mathematical education of their students. Like its companion text, More has been heavily expanded and reorganized, including even more student work, templates for key manipulatives, and an emphasis on applications to everyday life. Based on the content chapters in Teaching Fractions and Ratios, each chapter includes: In-depth Discussions of selected problems and their solutions. Supplementary Activities and a collection of challenging problems involving fractions. Praxis Preparation Questions geared to the content of each chapter.

Any way you slice it, fractions are foundational Many students struggle with fractions and must understand them before learning higher-level math. Veteran educator David B. Spangler provides research-based tools that are aligned with NCTM and Common Core State Standards. He describes powerful diagnostic methods for error analysis that pinpoint specific student misconceptions and supplies specific intervention strategies and activities for each error pattern. Also included are tools for analyzing student work and providing timely, specific, and meaningful interventions within an RTI framework. The targeted interventions for each error pattern promote teaching for conceptual understanding and are supported by documented academic research. Practical materials include: Reproducibles for diagnostic tests Practice pages for exercises keyed to the diagnostic tests and error patterns Pages for practicing alternative algorithms and estimation Teacher resources for hands-on activities, game sheets and pieces, and more Worksheets, answer keys, and online resources Each main unit, along with the sections on academic research and "Big Ideas," concludes with a set of teacher reflection questions for use in a professional development setting. Get ready, get set, and help your students tackle fractions with confidence!

This book is a supplement to the text Teaching Fractions and Ratios for Understanding. It is not merely an answer key, but a resource that includes in-depth discussions of the problems in the text; develops and extends discussion of the issues, teaching problems, and other considerations raised in the chapters; and contains additional problems--with and without solutions--that instructors may find helpful for assessment purposes. In the second edition, MORE has been reorganized so that supplementary activities immediately follow the discussions of the activities from the text. Solutions to these supplemental activities have been removed to facilitate the use of MORE in courses. Nevertheless, because the number of activities in each chapter of the text has increased and complete discussions of all of them are provided in MORE, there is ample opportunity to learn reasoning methods.