Fraction Operations Essay Example for Free

Fraction Operations Essay To facilitate assessment of the class, I observed the class for several session to develop insights on the behavior, class dynamics and teacher-student response. The current lesson of the class involved and math operations using fractions, requirements for Concept 1 PO 10 and PO 11 as well as Concept 2 PO 7 and PO8 of the 2006 Arizona State Education Standards. I was very happy to observe that the class was very active and receptive to instruction and needed little reinforcement with skills or concepts learned. However, I felt that there was some difficulty in application of learning to practice: number sense was high but performance in operations was lower. Using these observations, the children’s response to different activities and the Education Standards related to the are of study, I felt that play activity was the best strategy to use as reinforcement. I had chosen baking of no-bake cookies to be simple and effective activity for the children, allowing not only to practice their fraction and math skills but also to have a venue where they can interact and collaborate with one another. The children’s interaction during the sharing of the cookies also will allow them to experience fractions in rewarding manner such as in sharing snacks with their friends. As an educator, I feel strongly that there is a real need for classroom activities that designed to engage students in practical applications of fractions. By developing the activity into a non-instructional setup, emphasizing group and play activities which they have already shown a high degree participation, reinforcement would be more effective. The activity will also serve to reinforce the value of concepts of application of the concepts and allow for students to practice cooperative learning and allow teachers to interact with students better (Gillies et al, 2000). This will also allow for the identification of special intervention or supplemental activities for children who may not have been able to participate actively without them having to feel that they are being singled out of the group Implementation and Evaluation I divided the children divided into five groups and were given uniform recipes, Chocolate No-Bake Cookies . Each of the group was instructed to multiply the recipe to various yields: ? , ? , ? , 1 ? , and 2. Each group will then have to compute for the correct ratio of ingredients and proceed to create their cookies which they shared with the other group members. At the end of the activity, while sharing all the cookies with the calls, I encouraged the children to share their experience and develop their own realizations of the applications of fraction skills they had learned.