Reflection Lesson #3 Computing Equivalent Fractions

After teaching the lesson on computing equivalent fractions, I am left with

several thoughts regarding my teaching and student performance. I planned and
organized my lesson to include objectives that were aligned with the state and
national standards. I began the lesson by drawing on prior content knowledge
about fractions and I continued by teaching the current lesson objectives in which
the students responded to my teaching by answering on their white boards and
showing me their response. This provided valuable formative assessment
information as it prompted me to create another visual example along with a hand
motion to help the kinesthetic learners. After creating the hand gesture which went
along with the statement, Whatever we multiply the denominator by we must also
multiply the numerator by, turned into, Whatever we multiply the bottom by we
must also do to the top. At that moment, I watched the students faces light up and
a few even said aloud, This is easy! This helped to lay the ground work for those
students who were struggling with fractions computations. Even though the
outburst was a slight interruption, it was a valuable source of encouragement for
the other students in the class. Students who had not understood the concept,
were clearly getting the idea. After collecting and grading the quiz the class took, I
am very pleased to report a class average class score of 83%. Upon closer
examination of the students grades, I noticed that five students, who are lower
functioning students, posted an average score of 64%. If I could go back and teach
this lesson again, I would pull these five students to a table for an intervention to
help them be successful at creating equivalent fractions. Furthermore, I was very
pleased to see that 12 of the 17 students passed the quiz with a score of 100%. I
would probably go back and give these students harder problems next time to see if
they can function at an even higher level.
In order to reach all students with computing equivalent fractions, I opted to also
teach math through art. The students were instructed to trace seven circles on
construction paper: one green, one pink, one orange, one purple and three yellow.
Next they were to cut them out. I discussed using one whole circle to create the
bottom of the duck and another whole to create the head of the duck. After that I
proceeded in having the students fold the circles to represent the following fractions
, 1/4/ and 1/8. The students learned to use 3/8 of the pink circle, 5/8 of the
orange circle, of the yellow circle and 3/8 of the green circle. The students were
excited and happy to see their pictures come together as they cut out pie shaped
pieces to glue down on the cardstock. I even provided them with two googly eyes
for their duck to make him look more realistic. I believe the students learned that
there are more uses for fractions than what they originally thought. I am also glad I
learned about Gardners, Multiple Intelligences to help facilitate learning for these
students by differentiating my instruction. Collectively, I am pleased with the
results of the students quizzes and art work. I know their understanding of fractions
has increased.