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.

Come on a fun filled fractions adventure with the Ator brothers! Num Ator loves to count! He shares a house with his twin brother Nom Ator who lives downstairs. Nom loves to name things! This dynamic duo is the missing link for students who struggle with fractions. With wonderful storytelling, vibrant images, and exciting activities Right-Brained Fractions provides the groundwork to develop and reinforce fraction skills, which is achieved by students being able to create their own models to visualize each problem being solved. This valuable resource is specifically designed to engage and support any child's unique style of learning.

A Focus on Fractions is the first book to make cognitive research on how students develop their understanding of fraction concepts readily accessible and understandable to pre- and in-service K– 8 mathematics educators. This important resource assists teachers in translating research findings into their classroom practice by conveying detailed information about how students develop fraction understandings as well as common student misconceptions, errors, preconceptions, and partial understandings that may interfere with students learning. Using extensive annotated samples of student work, as well as vignettes characteristic of classroom teachers’ experiences, this book equips educators with knowledge and tools to reveal students’ thinking so that they can modify their teaching to improve student learning of fractions concepts. Special Features: End of Chapter Questions 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 and Research Reviews 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. A Focus on Fractions bridges the gap between what mathematics education researchers have discovered about the learning of fraction concepts and what teachers need to know to make effective instructional decisions.

The third edition of this book offers a unique approach to making mathematics education research on the teaching and learning of fraction concepts readily accessible and understandable to pre-service and in-service K-8 mathematics teachers. Revealing students’ thought processes with extensive annotated samples of student work and vignettes characteristic of classroom teachers’ experience, this book provides teachers a research-based lens to interpret evidence of student thinking, inform instruction and ultimately improve student learning. Based on research gathered in the Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP), and updated throughout, this engaging and easy-to-use resource also features: Two new chapters dedicated to understanding the OGAP Fraction Framework and Progression—based on research conducted with hundreds of teachers—to gather and interpret evidence of student learning along a learning progression, referenced throughout the book so readers can apply the concepts to their instruction; A close focus on student work, including 180+ annotated pieces of student work, to help teachers improve their ability to recognize, assess, and monitor their students’ errors and misconceptions, as well as their developing conceptual understanding; A discussion of decimal fractions, also new to the third edition; In-chapter sections on how Common Core State Standards for Math (CCSSM) are supported by math education research; End-of-chapter Looking Back questions to allow teachers to analyze student thinking and consider instructional strategies for their own students; Instructional links to help teachers relate concepts from each chapter to their own instructional materials and programs; Accompanying online Support Material includes an answer key to Looking Back questions, as well as a copy of the OGAP Fraction Framework and Progression. A Focus on Fractions is part of the popular A Focus on . . . collection, designed to aid the professional development of pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers. As with the other volumes on addition and subtraction, ratios and proportions, and multiplication and division, this updated new edition bridges the gap between what math education researchers know and what teachers need to know in order to better understand evidence in student work and make effective instructional decisions.

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.