Problem Types Across the Curriculum ◆ 55- Gas cost $2.29 a gallon. About how much will they spend on
the trip?
Adapted from http://www.mathsproblemsolving.com/number-problem-solving.html
Fraction Problems
One of our main jobs throughout the upper elementary grades is to get
our students on friendly terms with fractions. This seems like a somewhat
daunting task, but it can be done. The way to do it is throughout the year.
Students don’t learn how to do fraction problems during the unit on frac-
tions. They learn how to do fraction problems throughout the year by
seeing them often and using a variety of tools, models and strategies to
think about the problems. Take the example below. This is an adaptation
of the often cited Van de Walle (2007) problem where the students have to
reason about the size of the whole (see Figure 3.24). Think about how the
use of a picture prompt helps students to navigate through the problem.
I would give the problem to the students and let them discuss it and then
later show the picture prompt to see if anyone changes their thinking.
Jamal said that he ate^1 ⁄ 3 of his lollipop. Tim said he ate ½ of his lol-
lipop. Jamal said he ate more. Tim said he ate more because ½ is bigger
than^1 ⁄ 3. Jamal said that is not always true. Who is correct? How do
you know?Explain:Figure 3.24
In the problem below, students are asked to think about half in different
ways (see Figure 3.25). Students usually have very narrow ways of thinking
about numbers. So, it is important to get them to think about fractions as the