Fractions+&+Decimals+Yr+6

Sub Strand of Number and Algebra Year 6 Analysis
 * Fractions and Decimals **

**// How do Year 6 students work through adding and subtracting Fractions and Decimals? //** Working in a year 6 classroom for my final internship has provided me with a good opportunity to see how the __Australia__ Curriculum informs the mathematical knowledge of individuals at this year level. Currently students are actually working on aspects of the sub strand for our group has chosen to focus which is fractions and decimals. So far this term I have worked with small groups teaching them some skills required to add and subtract fractions and decimals.

During my first lesson with students we practiced adding decimals with unlike denominators. This proved a tricky task for those who could not remember the work they’d done on this topic in year 5. Others found the sums difficult because they hadn’t yet developed a strong stance on basic multiplication and therefore couldn’t think of common factors that would help them multiply the denominators to make them the same. Those who struggled with this aspect also were unable to simplify their fraction answer for the same reason- they couldn’t think of factors which divide evenly into both parts of the fraction.

What interested me regarding this issue was that if you refer to the Australian Curriculum students should actually have developed an awareness of their multiples of __numbers__ by the end of year 4. Therefore if students hadn’t fallen behind in year 4 then this part of year 6 maths would be easy enough for all students. So what do we do when students aren’t where they’re supposed to be by year 6? We go back to the root of the problem and try and teach them what they don’t already know.

Taking this knowledge to my fractions lesson I actually re taught the lesson to the same groups. This time we worked through sums together and with the __support__ of peers students were no longer sitting on a sum for 10minutes or more just trying to think of a factor of 10… Once students gathered the system of working through the sums by thinking of multiples to make ‘like’ denominators they were able to complete the worksheet. I also changed the part where in previous lessons I’d asked students to simplify this time only those who felt confident and could prove to me that they understood the process were able to simplify their answers. Students left the lesson this time with both declarative and procedural knowledge of how to add fractions with unlike denominators. This result was much more rewarding for both me and the students.

Extending on this activity the following week (Last Week 14/03/12) I worked with groups on adding and subtracting decimals by borrowing from numbers to the left. Students found this activity easy and after week 4 of the ‘Numeracy in Action” lecture I now know why! Even though these sums were decimals students followed the same algorithms that they’d __used__ all through schooling for all addition and subtraction sums. I didn’t even think to check if students had an awareness of place value because they demonstrated the working out so easily. To follow up next week I’m going to test out “Think Tables” to see if students can represent decimals and fractions in a variety of ways. Although I __agree__ with what Rob Proffit- White was saying during this week tutorial what I found interesting was a quote from Booker’s textbook which states “To add 234.6 and 12456.9 should be no harder than adding 4.5 and 6.9 when the addition algorithm for whole numbers is secure, which of course is a prerequisite for the extension of addition to fraction ideas.” (Booker, 2004) See below some examples of year 6 work on fractions and decimals: **Regards Talia :) **