Unit of Study: Mathematics for Students with Disabilities

Brigham Young University- Idaho

4/9/2018

SPED 392

Grade 3
Table of Contents:

• Unit Map Pg.3

• Pre- and post- assessment tools/procedures Pg. 4

• 5 unit lessons
1. Pg. 8
2. Pg. 13
3. Pg. 16
4. Pg. 19
5. Pg. 23

• Statement of unit

• References
 Unit Map
(Fractions)

Develop understanding of fractions as numbers.

CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.1
Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is
partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed
by a parts of size 1/b.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.2
Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a
number line diagram.
 CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.2.a
 Represent a fraction 1/b on a number line diagram by defining the interval
from 0 to 1 as the whole and partitioning it into b equal parts. Recognize
that each part has size 1/b and that the endpoint of the part based at 0
locates the number 1/b on the number line.
 CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.2.b
 Represent a fraction a/b on a number line diagram by marking off a lengths
1/b from 0. Recognize that the resulting interval has size a/b and that its
endpoint locates the number a/b on the number line.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3
Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by
reasoning about their size.
 CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.a
 Understand two fractions as equivalent (equal) if they are the same size, or
the same point on a number line.
 CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.b
 Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 =
2/3. Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction
model.
 CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.c
 Express whole numbers as fractions, and recognize fractions that are
equivalent to whole numbers. Examples: Express 3 in the form 3 = 3/1;
recognize that 6/1 = 6; locate 4/4 and 1 at the same point of a number line
diagram.
 CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.d
 Compare two fractions with the same numerator or the same denominator
by reasoning about their size. Recognize that comparisons are valid only
when the two fractions refer to the same whole. Record the results of
comparisons with the symbols >, =, or <, and justify the conclusions, e.g., by
using a visual fraction model.
Pre/Post assessments:
Lesson 1: Social studies
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.1
Objective
That students would gain familiarity with fractions and learn basic fractional
notation: that 1/b is the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned
into b equal parts and that a/b is the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b. That
they would learn to work as a team, helping the weakest members in order to
gain united success.
Supplies
 1 piece colored folding paper for each student, or construction paper
rectangles
 Five flashcards for each student: ½, ¼, ¾, 1/3, 2/3 portions of a circle
(printable here)
 One set of large flashcards for teacher, with ½, ¼, ¾, 1/3 2/3 written out.
 ‘Initial Assignment’ missive paper, one copy of each (printable here)
 Secret missive paper, enough for the class; two types (printables here and
here)
 Group prizes or ‘winning team’ paper headbands, enough for half the class.
 Math notebooks or writing paper & pencils for each student.

Methodology/Procedure
Tell your students that you’re not going to do much regular math today; today is
going to be a fun day. Go on to explain that instead of doing regular arithmetic
and adding or dividing (or whatever yesterday’s topic was) you’re going to learn
something really cool: a secret code that they’ll be able to use to write important
math messages with. And that if they learn it well, they’ll be able to use it right
away, in an exciting game that they can play in the classroom.
But tell them that before you start that, you’d like to do a brief review of
fractions. Ask them what a half is (one of two equal parts) and how many halves
are in a whole (2). Ask what a third is (one of three equal parts) and how many
thirds are in a whole (3); then go on to fourths. If they have forgotten any of this
or it seems even a little rusty, give them a bit of a refresher. Give them each a
rectangle and as you call out ‘half!’ ‘quarter!’ or ‘third!’ have them race to fold it
and display the portion you called.
When they’ve got it, tell them they have, and tell them you’re proud of the speed
with which they can fold. Tell them now they’ve done their work, so now it’s time
to go on to secret codes and the new game.
Ask them what they know about secret codes. Give them a chance to talk about
what they know; the final thought you want to come up with—and you can just
state it yourself if no-one has similar thoughts—is that a secret code is a way of
giving information to one’s friends in a way that one’s enemies can’t understand.
Tell them that another special thing about secret codes is that they’re often short
and concise, allowing their writers to put a lot of information in a very little space.
Then tell them that now you are going to show them how to write fractions in
secret codes.
Draw a circle, and color half. Then, next to it, write ‘half’ on the blackboard. Tell
them this is how you write half in plain English. Ask them if it’s easy to read and
understand (yes). Ask them if it’s short. (Not too long, but it takes the space of
four whole letters).
Ask them how they would make a secret code that would express half.
Encourage them to experiment with different possibilities in their math
notebooks. After a few minutes, ask whoever has an idea to come forward and
draw it on the blackboard. Provide chalk for each child, and have them write
down their secret codes. Ask whoever has a unique notation to explain their
secret code and why they chose it to the class.
Then tell them that there are people called mathematicians who decided what
the main secret code was going to be for math, and you’ll tell them that secret.
Write ½ on the blackboard, next to the word half.
Ask them why they think the mathematicians chose that way. After they’ve had a
chance to express their ideas, show them how they can read it as ‘one of two
equal parts’, and that the number on the bottom is the number of parts you’ve
divided the whole in; the top, the number of those pieces you have.
Ask them to copy ½ down into their math notebook. Then draw another circle on
the blackboard, divide in four quarters, color one quarter, and write the word
‘quarter’ next to it. Tell them this is a quarter, and this word is how you write
quarter in English. Ask them whether they have any guesses as to how you would
write it in math’s secret code.
If you have any volunteers, have them come up to the blackboard try out their
ideas, and explain them to the class. Validate each idea, and if anyone writes ¼,
tell him that he was thinking in exactly the same way as the mathematicians were.
Write ¼ next to your word ‘quarter’.
Go through the same procedure for 1/3rd; here, thought should be united enough
that you should be able to call just one confident child up to the blackboard to
write down 1/3 as his idea and explain how he got it.
Now draw another circle on the blackboard; divide it into thirds, but instead of
shading 1/3 , shade 2/3. Write “two thirds” and ask your students how they’d
write it in math secret code.
Ask volunteers to come up and share their ideas with the class. If you get 2 1/3,
tell the writer that it is a good idea, but the problem is it looks the same as the
way you’d write two wholes and a one third, and draw a picture of that with
circles.
When someone comes up with 2/3, tell him he was thinking just like he
mathematicians who decided this code.
Pass out the flashcards, and tell the students that when you display your secret
code flashcard you want them to pick up and show you the equivalent pie
flashcard, without looking at any of their classmates. Go through your cards in
random order at least twice; more if some students are having difficulty.
Then tell them it is time for the game. Divide the class in two teams, each with a
team leader who has a good grasp of what you’ve been teaching. Tell them that
the team that wins will get whatever prize you’ve prepared, or get the honor of
wearing ‘winning team’ headbands for the rest of the week in school.
Tell them that when soldiers or intelligence agents use secret codes in war, it is
very important that every member of the team is able to do his part well and
convey the message without losing any of the meaning. Ask what happens if one
of the people passing on a message forgets the secret code (the message is lost).
Tell the teams that the same thing will happen if one of their members musses up
or forgets the code: they will lose all chance of winning.
Give them five minutes to review the secret code together, and tell the leaders
they are responsible for making sure every member of the team understands how
to write and decipher the secret code of fractions.
When they are ready, set each team up as a chain. The game will be conducted
like telephone; you’ll give the leader of each team a picture with six circles, each
divided into different fractions with different parts shaded. They’ll ‘translate this’
on to their missive sheet, writing in math’s secret codes. Then they’ll fold this
paper up and pass it to the next team member, who will take it, color and shade
the circles on his paper, and pass that paper on to the next team member
Teamplayers will have been given circle and secret missive papers, alternately.
You may want to walk up and down the lines checking the work; your
responsibility is not to make sure they are doing it correctly, but just that the
‘secret code’ writers are not writing circles and the circle drawers are not writing
code.
The first team which sends the message down the line correctly wins. When the
message goes down the line, you pick it up and return it to the first player. He
compares it with the original paper you gave him. If they are the same, they have
won. If they are not correct and the other team has not yet won, he can walk
down his line, checking the papers, and find where the mistake began. If he
corrects that mistake, the message begins again at that person and is passed on
again down the line until it comes to the end.
To avoid bad feelings and loser mentality, you can let the other team continue
working till they’ve got the message passed down correctly also, and offer them a
consolation prize or ‘silver medal finalists’ headbands.
Tell your students they have learned something incredibly useful today; a secret
code with which they can communicate with other math people all over the
world.
Don’t forget to encourage them to practice this special code any chance they get.
One way of doing this would be by spending some time on our fun fractions
activity pages. Visual Fractions is a simple but very enjoyable interactive web
application where students can type in any fraction and see it formed before their
eyes. The link Online Fraction Games Technology will bring your students to a
number of other fraction-based games; some a little above their level, but others
that they are ready to tackle.
Lesson 2: CRA
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.2.a
Objective
That students would be able to represent a fraction 1/b on a number line by
defining the interval from 0 to 1 as the whole and partitioning it into b equal
parts, and that they’d understand that each part has size 1/b . Also, that they
would understand that the endpoint of the part based at 0 locates the number
1/b on the number line.
Supplies
 Number line experiment worksheet for each student (download here)
 Precut (colored) strips of paper, ½-1 inch thick and the length of zero to one
on the student’s number lines, and a few longer strips of paper for you to
use with the number line you will draw on the blackboard
 Apple or other similar easily dividable item

Methodology/Procedure
Tell your students that they’ve become so good at identifying and dealing with
fractions—portions of pie, pizza, or apples and oranges—that today they can take
what they’ve learned to a whole new sphere.
Pick up an apple. Tell them that it is an apple; you can feel it, you can measure it
with a ruler, and you can divide it into two equal parts with a sharp knife. Remind
them you can do the same with pizza, and with almost any physical object,
provided your knife is sharp enough.
Then ask them if there are other things they could divide in half, things they can’t
touch, feel, or cut with a sharp knife.
Write a list of ideas on the blackboard. Some ideas might be groups of things (or
people), air, water, time, or space.
Validate each addition to the list as you write it down, and then tell them that
today you’re going to look at fractions of three special things: portions of time,
space, and mathematical units.
Talk about time first. Ask what it means when we say ‘half an hour’, and get as
many versions of the answer as possible. If no-one suggests it, tell them that one
way of thinking about it is as half the distance from one hour to the other.
Draw a diagram of your day on the blackboard; essentially, a number line that
describes your day. At this point, though, don’t describe it as a ‘number line’ to
your students. Put sitting up in bed, the first thing you do in the morning, away
on the far left side of your diagram. Put going to sleep as the last thing, and in the
middle put lunch.
Tell your students that the area between waking up and lunch is your morning;
and then shade the first half, and tell them it is half your morning. If the morning
was four hours long, from eight to twelve, and you were feeling miserable half the
morning, ask them how long you were feeling miserable. (2 hours) How long were
you feeling okay? (Also 2)
Observe that if you look at time in that way, time is very similar to distance. Talk
about the distance between the bed and the lunch table in your drawing, and
what half of it means. Talk about half of the way from the place you are standing
to the window. Walk four steps away from your desk, counting as you go, and ask
how many steps it is to your desk. Ask how many steps you would need to walk if
you wanted to walk only half the way back to the desk (2). What if you wanted to
walk just a quarter of the way back? (1)
Now erase everything from the blackboard and draw a simple number line going
from zero to three. Ask them what this is called (a number line). Remind them
that since a number line is math, we can use it to mean anything. We get to use
the same number line, in exactly the same way, whether we’re talking about
cookies, pizza, time, or distance.
Tell them for now you’ll pretend it’s talking about pizza. Put your chalk at zero,
write a small dot, and test the students on basic number line usage: Here, you
see, I have no pizza. If I buy two pizzas—one peperoni and one sausage—where
would I show that on the number line?
Your students should guide you to move your hand to the two. Do so, make a dot
there, and then go back to the zero.
That was the day before yesterday, explain. Yesterday, I also started with no
pizza. I also bought pizza. But I wasn’t feeling very hungry and didn’t have much
spare money, so I only bought half. How can I show that on the number line?
There isn’t any place that says ‘half’.
Listen to any ideas they come up to. If someone suggests dividing the portion of
the number line between zero and one in two parts and making a dot on the
middle line, tell him you really like that idea.
Take a strip of paper exactly as long as the distance between zero and one; fold it
in half, lay it on the number line from 0 to ½, and draw your ‘half pizza’ dot. Shade
the area on the line between 0 and ½. Ask your students how long that segment
is; compared to the length between 0 and 1 (1/2 the length). Ask them where the
segment starts (0).
Pick up the folded paper strip again, and ask how long it is (1/2 of what it used to
be). Since it is ½, ask them if it means ½ wherever you place it on the number
line—do you have to begin measuring off at zero, or can you start somewhere
else instead? Get feedback as to why or why not before you explain that since ½ is
just half of one, and you have no ‘wholes’ to add it to, you always have to start on
zero when you measure its placement.
Ask them how you’d find out where to place a do for 1/4th. Fold your strip into
fourths, and use the folded strip as a measuring stick to place a dot at exactly
1/4th.
Ask about 1/3, unfold your strip and refold into thirds, and prepare to make a 1/3
mark. Ask where you should start the strip when you measure off the 1/3 (at 0).
Ask which mark is closer to the zero (1/4); which is furthest away (1/2).
Then pass out the student worksheets and strips of paper. Your students will be
marking ½, 1/3, ¼ and 1/6 on their own number lines. If you have not introduced
1/6th previously, you may need to walk your student through that fraction by
marking your own 1/6 on the blackboard.
Lesson 3:
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.2.b
Objective
That students would be comfortable representing a fraction a/b on a number line
diagram by marking off a lengths 1/b from zero, and that they’d understand that
the resulting interval has size a/b, and that its endpoint locates the number a/b
on the number line.
Supplies
 Large 0-2 number lines, laminated and taped to the floor (ideal length: 3 or
4 feet long). These can also be prepared by taping standard printing paper
end to end and drawing the number lines with markers, using rulers for
uniformity. You’ll need one for every four students.
 Strips of colored paper the same size as one unit on the number line; one
per student; four colors.
 A marker for each student; four colors; each student’s marker must be
coordinated with his paper.
 Fraction Nametags (download printable)
 Hopscotch Flashcards (download printable; print 1 per page)
 Three types of stickers (ideally, small stars in red, yellow, or green; but
other simple colored stickers can substitute).

Methodology/Procedure
Begin by reviewing what you taught in the last lesson. Remind the students that
we talked about what fractions of abstract numbers mean, and we learned that
they work in exactly the same way as fractions of tangible, concrete things like
apples. Draw your 0-2 number line on the board, mark 0, 1, and 2, and ask how
you would find out where to mark 1/3. After listening to their suggestions, take a
strip of paper the size of a unit on your number line, divide it in thirds, and use
that to mark 1/3.
Then ask your students how you’d mark 2/3. Give them permission to discuss it
with their neighbors, then ask for a volunteer to come and demonstrate it on the
board. He will most likely demonstrate it correctly; laying your 1/3 strip end to
end twice to find the 2/3 point.
If he doesn’t, or if the idea still seem counterintuitive to many of your students,
go back to the idea of distance. Get a volunteer to come stand beside you and
then walk three steps away. Ask him to come one third of the distance back (1
step). Then ask him to go back, and tell him now to come two thirds of the
distance to you. Continue with other volunteers and other fractions until your
students are comfortable with the idea.
Then transfer this idea onto your number line, and show how starting at zero and
measuring two 1/3rds brings you to the 2/3 point on your number line.
Then have the children help you move tables and chairs to the back, so that you
have a large empty space to work. If a gym or other large empty room is available,
you may want to move there for the rest of this class. Otherwise, tailor the size of
your number lines to match the available space.
Set up the number lines on the floor. Each number line will have four children
manning it, so you’ll need to have as many number lines as the number of
children in your class divided by four. These number lines will preferably be
arranged side by side, in a line.
Assign the students to teams; four students to each number line. Give each
student a strip of colored paper the size of one unit on their floor number lines.
Then assign each student a fraction: in every group, you need a 1/3 student, a ¼
student, a 1/6 student, and a 1/8 student. Tape the designations on each
student’s shirt. For a ‘handicapped race’ effect, give 1/3 and ¼ designations to the
slower students, 1/6 and 1/8 designations to those that are faster. Each student
will be called on the same number of times, but students with smaller fractions
will have to do more counting and hopping.
Hand out the number strips and markers; in each group, one of each color. It
helps organization if you give all students representing a particular fraction the
same color.
If you have one odd student out, make him the caller. If you have two or three
odd ones out, give them a number line and fractions.
Ask the students to mark where their fractions are on their number lines: 1/3, ¼,
1/6, and 1/8. They will do this with the strips of paper, folding them into
appropriate sections as they did in yesterday’s lesson, and using those sections as
rulers. Tell them to keep these strips of paper folded after they’ve used them.
These strips are their ‘shoes’, and they’ll be needed again and again throughout
the game.
Describe the game to them. The caller (you, if there wasn’t an extra student)
stands at the front of the room with a pile of full-sized shuffled ‘hopscotch
flashcards’. He picks one, displays it, and reads it out. Immediately the students
representing that fraction take their ‘shoe’ – the paper strip—mark off the
appropriate number of intervals, and then jump, once in each interval, to the
fraction marker. For instance, if the caller picked “4/6” the 1/6 player would
measure off 4 ‘1/6’ measures with his paper shoe, and then, as soon as they are
measured, hop down to the fourth one, doing a one foot jump in each place. The
first three to successfully measure and jump are awarded stickers on their
fraction nametags: red for the first to hop to place, yellow for the second, and
green for the third. Then they go back to the beginning, and the caller calls again.
They will soon discover that after they’ve been called once future calls are easier,
as they will have marked off some (maybe all) of their fractions on the number
line. Since they are using their colored markers, it will be easy to tell their
intervals versus their team-mates. Before the game is halfway done, you should
have no measuring at all; just quick, sure hopping when a new fraction is called.
Throughout the game, continue to interweave your class objectives with the
game by asking at intervals, randomly, but of every student at least once: How far
did you jump? (a steps) What was the size of the interval you jumped through
(a/b)? Where is the point a/b on the number line (at the end of a 1/b steps).
Play as long as time permits; the game speeds up as you go, so you should be able
to get through the stack of flashcards twice. At the end of the game the stars get
tallied up on a per team basis: red is three points, yellow two points, green one
point. The team with the greatest number of points wins.
Lesson 4:
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.a
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.b
Objective
Students will understand that two fractions are equivalent if they are the same
size, or the same point on a number line. They will be able to explain why
fractions are equivalent, and will be able to recognize and make up lists of simple
equivalent fractions.
Supplies
 Folding paper, 1 square per student.
 Flashcard sets; one per student (download printables)
 2 scrabble tile holders
Methodology/Procedure
As a warmup, begin with a quick fractions review. Pass out the folding paper, and
have your students fold fractions—as fast as possible; first one done is the
winner—as you call them out. Call out ½, 1/3, ¼, 1/6, and 1/8, in random order.
If they have difficulty, continue this exercise for several rounds. When they
achieve fluency, tell them you are proud. Tell them you’ve got a fun topic to look
at today; and it’s a topic you won’t even need to teach; they can discover it all
themselves. Give each student a partial set of fraction number & visual
flashcards; ½, ¼, 2/4, and ¾ cards from both visual and numerical sets. Ask them
to match the cards to the pie pictures, and then to order both sets according to
size, smallest to largest.
When they have finished, walk around the room and review the students’ work.
Help any who have had trouble, encouraging them to look at the picture cards
and compare relative sizes. Find two students who have chosen different
orderings, and give them the scrabble tile holders. Ask them to place their
numerical cards carefully on the tile holder, then go to the front of the room and
display their ordering to the class. Observe that these are two different orderings
of the same set; ask which is wrong.
Invite any students who point out one or the other as wrong to explain why it is
wrong, using the picture flashcards and comparing sizes.
If your students say unanimously that neither is wrong, tell them that they are
right. Draw on the board the visual circle fractions, and demonstrate how the two
parts are exactly the same.
Tell them that in math the two fractions ½ and 2/4 are called equivalent fractions.
Explain that what that means is that they are two names for the same thing.
Sometimes one name is more useful, sometimes the other is. Ask them if they
know anyone who has two names. If they do not come up with their own
examples, remind them of a common acquaintance—the principal, perhaps, who
is called Mr. Brown at school, Daddy at home, and Jake by his golfing friends.
Point out that the man these names this refers to is the same, no matter what
name he is called, and that all of these names belong to him equally.
You can also use yourself as an example.
Draw a half circle on the chalkboard, and tell your students this could be labeled
as ½ or 2/4, and both answers would be entirely correct. Ask them if they can
think of any other names for this same portion.
If any students have suggestions, invite them to come up and demonstrate
equivalence on the board with pictures. If no-one has any idea, use lines to divide
the circle on the board into eight equal wedges, and point out that half is also
four 1/8 wedges, or 4/8.
Ask your students how many names each portion has. Let them think about and
discuss this, and then demonstrate how each portion will have an infinite number
of names, because you can always divide the existing pieces each in half again to
get twice the amount of smaller pieces.
Hand out the remaining card sets, and ask the students to match the number
cards to the visual cards and then order all the cards by portion size, from
smallest to largest. Suggest they show equivalence by placing equivalent fractions
at the same level in their orderings.
Let your students take their times over their orderings. If they finish quickly and
you have time left before the end of the class, do some quiz work: draw shaded
portions on the blackboard and ask your students to help you come up with a list
of possible ‘names’.
Lesson 5:
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.c
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.d
Objective
That students would be comfortable relating fractions and whole numbers, going
from fractions to whole numbers and back again. That they would also gain
familiarity in ordering fractions and comparing the sizes of any fractions that have
either the same numerator or the same denominator.
Supplies
 Number Names Worksheet (download printable)
 Fraction Comparisons Worksheet (download printable)

Methodology/Procedure
Draw a half circle on the board, and ask your student if they can tell you some of
its names. If they’ve been exposed to ‘fraction names’ in Mathwarehouse’s
Discovering Equivalence lesson plan, they should be able to help you come up
with a long list as they mentally divide the circle into more and more segments: ½,
2/4, ¾.
Now draw another circle on the board and shade the whole thing. Ask your
students if they know the names of this portion. Write ‘1’, beside the circle, and
wait for more suggestions.
If a student comes up with 2/2 for a suggestion, draw the dividing line, tell him
he’s right, and put the fraction down on your list. Encourage your students to
continue mentally dividing the filled circle to create more fractions. Once you
have a long list, ask them how much longer they think it will be. Discuss how it is a
list that can go on forever, because you can always divide every portion into
smaller and smaller portions. The numbers on the top and bottom of your
fractions—always the same—will just keep on getting larger and larger and larger,
and there is no end.
Now tell your students you have a very long list of numbers; suggest you put them
all on a numberline. Draw a large numberline on the board and write on
designations from one to ten, leaving room for continued expansion on the right.
Ask for volunteers to come up and write the fractions on the numberline.
This is, in a way, a trick question; because the way the question is set up assumes
that the names are separate numbers and will go to different points. If your
students are awake and used to thinking through problems rather than parroting
answers you should have at least one willing to challenge your statement:
pointing out that the list is not a list of numbers, but a list of names of one single
number. If anyone makes this objection, ask him or her to get up and
demonstrate this to the class. This can be done by dividing the area between 0
and 1 into two portions, and counting down both of them for 2/2; dividing the
area into three portions, and counting down all three for 3/3, and so forth.
If no one objects to the graphing of the ‘numbers’ give chalk to three or four
volunteers and divide the list up between them, asking them to mark each of
those numbers on the number line. They may stare at the board confusedly, they
may begin marking the integers they see on the numerators, they may try to do
fancy calculations, or they may all dash for the point ‘1’. Give them the time they
need to think through the problem and make mistakes, and only call a halt on the
project once they tell you they have the numbers all marked. Then, give
appropriate feedback: if they’ve marked it correctly, tell them so, and ask them to
explain to the rest of the class why all those points are one point. If they have
marked the ‘numbers’ on separate points, ask them to demonstrate their
‘orderings’ with pictures.
It is important that you give them the time they need to discover the locations of
these ‘cognates of 1’ on the number line, by whatever circuitous route they take.
They will learn much more by making mistakes and following through to the dead
ends that follow—and then rethinking the problem and finding the right answer—
then they would if they were given the correct interpretation straight off. The
circuitous, labored path will also cement the final concept in their minds in a way
you’d never have been able to teach if you were the prime mover.
When your volunteer discoverers have come to the conclusion that every one of
the ‘numbers’ is one, follow up on the concept of equivalence. Ask if these
numbers are really one and the same quantity, or if each is just a little bit
different. Agree with them that they are all equivalent; all different names of the
same absolute point. Each name is just as true and accurate as any other, and no
name is bigger or smaller than any other name.
Now you need to extend this to other numbers. Write 2 on the board, draw two
circles, fully shaded, and tell your students “This is 2, and this is its name, 2. Does
it have any other names?”
If your students have immediate suggestions, begin writing them down,
illustrating with dividing lines drawn through your circles to allow any slower
students to follow. If there are no suggestions, ask your students what would
happen if you divide each circle in half. Allow them to take it from there, and
write their list of the ‘names of two’ on the blackboard.
Give each student a copy of the Number Names worksheet, and encourage them
to make their list of names for 3 and 4 as long as they can. If they have difficulty
keeping track of multiple lines on their strawberry cakes, encourage them to draw
their own sets of three or four circles and make the divisions on separate pictures.
This next part of this lesson plan can be taught as a separate lesson if your
students go slowly through the whole number section. Remember, going slowly is
not necessarily a bad thing; it may mean your students really are taking the time
to think things through and really cementing these concepts in their minds.
Write two fractions down on the board: 2/3 and 2/4. Tell your students these are
portions of two different regular sized snickers bar at your house, and ask them
which is larger.
When they tell you 2/3 is larger, write that down using a > symbol. Ask them how
they knew. Bring them to observe that the fewer pieces you divide something in,
the larger the pieces are; and a third is larger than a fourth. Note that since the
numerators are the same, the denominators will tell which is larger; and the
smaller the denominator, the larger the portion.
Ask them how you could check this. One way would be laying the two snicker bar
portions side by side. Since the snicker bars are somewhere else and that isn’t
possible, you can also check by drawing diagrams, being careful to make neat
thirds and quarters. Draw a visual fraction model and shade the areas,
demonstrating that 2/3 is larger than 2/4.
Now write 2/3 and 2/4 on the blackboard again. Tell your students that this time,
these are not snicker bars, but cakes. After the 2/3, write Mollie’s birthday cake.
After the 2/4, write Jennie Brown’s cake. Ask which is larger.
your students have answered, draw the cakes. Tell them Mollie’s cake is a 12”
square. Tell them Jennie Brown’s cake is a three layer wedding cake, with a radius
of 22”. Ask them if their answer is still right. Ask them what went wrong in their
thinking; or why the method they used for comparing parts of snicker bars didn’t
work for comparing parts of cake. Bring them to observe that you can only
compare fractions if they refer to identical wholes.
Let them know, though, that when they see fractions without designation in math
problems, they may assume they are referring to identical wholes unless told
differently. In story problems, though, they’ll need to be careful.
Now write 2/4 and ¾ on the board, and tell your students these fractions refer to
snickers bars again. Ask which is larger. When they tell you ¾ is larger, draw the <
symbol between the fractions. Ask how they knew. Bring them to observe that if
the denominators are the same, the fraction with the larger number in the
numerator is larger. This is because the identical denominator means the pieces
are the same size, and the larger numerator means you have more pieces.
Ask them how they could check this: with a picture. Draw the picture,
demonstrating that ¾ is a larger piece.
Now write ½ and 2/4 on the blackboard. Ask which is larger. Observe this is more
difficult to compare by looking at the numbers because neither the numerator or
denominator are the same, but ask them if they can rename ½ into something
else. Suggest they draw a diagram of ½, and divide each portion in half again to
find the ‘new name’. When they rename ½ as 2/4, the denominators become the
same so that they can be compared easily: in fact, the two fractions are both 2/4,
exactly the same.
Give your students the fraction comparisons worksheet, and ask them to fill it
out. They’ll be asked to use the symbols >,<, and = when they compare fractions,
and they’ll also be asked to justify their conclusions with a simple circle diagram, a
visual fraction model.
Statements:
 This content in this unit will help students to understand fraction as a whole
 This content in this unit will help students to understand fraction in a
number line.
 This content in this unit will help students compare fractions to other
fraction of equal amount.
 This content in this unit will students compare fractions by using symbols of
greater, or equal.

Reference:
http://www.mathwarehouse.com/topic/category/lesson-plans/3rd-grade-
lessons/