Kids and fractions are not a good mix at my school. My students absolutely loathe fractions and want to kill them all. But as we math teachers know, fractions are a huge building block in the world of mathematics. This year I have really seen my kids struggling with fractions. Most of these kids had substitutes during their middle school years because the regular teachers had children during the school year, nothing wrong with that, but it happened three years in a row and that, I believe, hurt these kids in building their mathematical base. So it comes to my class and these kids only know how to do fractions with their stinking calculators. I would love to tear each one of the fraction buttons on their calculator. That button has lead to a lot less learning, especially with fractions.
So what am I to do? Well, I was reading my twitter feed and someone (sorry but I can't remember who mentioned this) said something about a fraction Friday type of bell ringer. So it got me to thinking, and I came up with Fun Fraction Friday. Every Friday, I will have 5 fraction problems: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and another of my choice as a bell ringer. I started this today and the results were amazing. The average Algebra 2 kids answered 2.8 questions correct, and my Math Analysis kids were able to average 3.7 questions. What is even worse is my Algebra 1B kids only got an average .7 questions correct. Hopefully as this little project gets going the averages will go up (they certainly can't go down much more). With the kids seeing fractions more often they should feel more comfortable with them and their anxiety level will decrease when it comes to fractions. I am also going to show them where fractions come alive in the mathematics we are teaching. I just hope they will turn their draconian view of fractions into a love of fractions. Might be wishfull thinking, but we all have to have goals.
Live Long and Learn Lots
Mr. Love
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