Unit Topic or Theme: Mathematics

Grade: 3

Lesson Topic or Theme: Fractions

Lesson Objectives: 

Students will be able to identify the difference between a numerator and a denominator as well as write fractions based on a picture and shade in a picture based on a written fraction.

Instructional Materials:

Whiteboard

Whiteboard markers

Projector

1 Computer per student

2 Worksheet per student

• Worksheet #1 - How to access and use interactive fraction puzzles on mathplayground.com

• Worksheet #2 - Closure activity

Interactive Website - https://www.mathplayground.com/puzzle_pics_2/tilesmath_fractions.htm

Worksheet #2 - https://www.math-aids.com/Fractions/Fractions_Visual.html

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT1WuyxTCmo

Procedure:

Introduction Activity: 

First, the teacher should gather all the students around the white board and write the word FRACTION on the board.  Then ask the students what they know about the term fraction.  Assuming that some students have heard of the word and some may even have a low level of understanding on the subject, write a simple fraction on the board such as ½.   Ask the students if any of them know how to draw a diagram that represents the fraction ½. If the students understand the topic you write more difficult fractions and diagrams to get a further understanding of the students knowledge of fractions.  The purpose of this introduction activity is to formatively assess students about their knowledge of fractions and it can act as a pre assessment to see how the students knowledge of fractions will grow throughout the lesson.

Step-by-step:

After the opening activity, the teacher will play the educational video that will hopefully teach the students about numerators and denominators and how to identify each in a classroom setting. After the video is played, the teacher will ask the class if anyone has any questions so far, and then summarize the main ideas of the educational clip. When the students have grasped the concepts gone over in the video, the teacher will then ask students to log onto their computers, and give them handout #1 explaining how to access and use the given website.  Have the students click on the question mark (on the right hand side), and where it says “Adjust Puzzle Level”, make sure there is only one bar. This means that the difficulty of the game is on Level One, the most simple level. After the students have successfully completed three puzzles (without making any mistakes), they may move onto Level Two. After having done the same thing on Level Two, students may then move onto Level Three and attempt to do the same. Although there is no penalty for making a mistake, students must be honest as to whether or not they are allowed to move on to the next level.  After the student has completed Level Three, the teacher can give them the closure activity.

Closure:

For the closing activity, the educator will hand each student worksheet #2. On the worksheet, students will see that there are two separate activities. On the first part of the worksheet, students will have to demonstrate their knowledge of numerators and denominators by converting partially shaded in shapes into written fractions. The second part of the activity requires students to shade in the numerator of shapes based on the written fraction given.  The students should be able to find a connection between the interactive website and the worksheet.  

Evaluation:

The purpose of the closure activity is to evaluate how much students learned from the entire lesson. After students finish filling out the closure activity, the teacher will collect the worksheets, correct them, and use them for reference as to which students are still struggling with the overall objective and which ones are not. The teacher then has the opportunity to compare the closure activity to the opening formative assessment in order to see if the class has an overall better understanding of fractions than they did before the lesson. Students should be able to identify the difference between a numerator and a denominator, the student should know that the numerator is the shaded in piece(s) of the shape, and the denominator is how many equal parts the shape is divided into. The first 10 questions (part one) of the worksheet, students will have to demonstrate their knowledge of numerators and denominators by converting partially shaded in shapes into written fractions. The second part of the activity involves students shading in the numerator of shapes based on the written fraction given. Parts one and two of the worksheet cover the lesson objective of students being able to write fractions based on a picture and shade in a picture based on a written fraction. Depending how well the class does on the closing activity will influence the complexity of future fraction lessons.