Fractions

The internet was down at school so we couldn't do our normal Estimation 180 to start my 8th grade math classes. However, the state exam is coming up, so I thought I would refresh their memory about fractions. I put three problems on the board - one each of addition, multiplication, and division. Students got to work and very few had to ask me how to do the problems. As I walked around I was impressed with how many students were getting correct answers, and quickly too! I was expecting more than half the class to have forgotten what to do.

I credit it to the month we spent doing fractions every day at the beginning of class. I know this is an area where kids struggle, so I made sure we practiced a ton. Honestly, I didn't spend much time on the conceptual aspect of fraction operations; most of the work we did was drill work. Even after doing fractions almost every day for a month, there were still students who struggled. After that month, I let fractions go and focused on other things. I wondered how much all that practice would stick with them. I read somewhere on the MTBoS about a teacher's frustrating experience teaching a concept. He spent extra time on it, and even then felt that his students didn't get it. However, later in the year when it came up again, they all knew the concept. I hoped that this would happen with my students and fractions.

Today before we went over the problems together, I told my students how proud I was of them for remembering how to do fraction operations. One of the students said to me - That's because you're obsessed with fractions. I laughed and took the comment with happiness. I said - That's the point! I made you do it every day because I know how hard fractions are and I don't want you to leave here not knowing how to do them. So go ahead and think of me as being obsessed with fractions.