#4121. Reducing Fractions

Special Ed, level: Elementary
Posted Fri Jul 27 08:30:39 PDT 2007 by Sarah Dontsow (sdontsow@yahoo.com).
Whiteley Elementary , Hoffman Estates, USA
Materials Required: see step 9 in lesson
Activity Time: 1-2 class periods
Concepts Taught: Fractions

Lesson Plan

Subject: Math Date: February 5, 2007

Behavioral Objective:
Given a verbal prompt, each student will complete the practice set (TBD after guided practice) of problems on the worksheet requiring students to reduce proper fractions and write them in simplest form with 75% accuracy of problems completed independently.

Illinois Learning Standard:
6.B.2 Solve one- and two-step problems involving fractions

Teaching Steps:

Agenda

Reducing Fractions
1. Review Terms
2. I show you (2/4, 3/6)
3. Vocab
Simplest form
Reduce
4. We do some together (4/8, 6/8, 3/12)
5. Check In
6. You do some on your own (Practice Worksheet)
7. Check Answers
8. Homework

1. Anticipatory Set (focus, a hook to grab students' attention):
Last week when we were doing number lines we figured out that fractions could be written in more than one way. The top of our number line and the bottom of our number lines were looked different, but still represented the same thing. Today we are going to learn other ways to write fractions.

2. Purpose (objective):
In math we need our work to be clear and the best it can possibly be and that means we may need to change the way our fractions look. (Give writing example) It is a courtesy to our fellow mathematicians to have our fractions looking the best they possibly can.

3. Input:
Give a handout to each student with math terms on them. Let's go over these terms and decide which ones we've learned already during this unit, and which ones we might not have seen yet this year.

4. Modeling (show):
So if I want to show a fraction in the best way I can, I need to look at it first and decide if there is a way to make it easier to understand. I'm going to show you how to do that.
I want you to watch me first, and then we can do some together.
I'm looking at 2/4. I don't really notice anything right away. I'm going to look at my math words and see if I can look at it differently. To help me I'm going to use my math brain and look at 2 numbers. I know that 2 is a factor of 4. I also know that 4 is a multiple of 2. If my goal is to make this the easiest to read, I'm going to try and make it smaller. I think I'll start with listing the factors of two and factors of four.
2--1,2
4--1,2,4
GCF--2
2 divided by 2 is what?
4 divided by 2 is what?
Write answer
Check answer in my calculator

Try another one . . . 3/6 (repeat process)

VOCAB and CHECKLIST

5. Guided Practice (follow me):
Go through the process with students for the fraction 4/8:
Use numbers in our sentences
Write factors
Choose Greatest Common Factor
Reduce Fraction
Check answer in calculator.
Provide assistance when needed.

6. Check for Understanding:
Have you noticed a pattern?
What was the answer for all of our questions so far?
Will ALL fractions reduce to ½?

7. More Guided Practice:
Let's check. Why don't we try 6/8
Can we use the numerator and denominator in our sentence? No
Well let's go to our next step and find our GCF for the two numbers.
Finish the steps.

Do another problem with the fraction 3/12.

7. Independent Practice:
I think you're ready to show me you can do it on your own. Do as many as you can with the time you have left and we will check them together. (More or less, depending on the time)

8. Closure:
Most/all of you showed me a lot of hard work and effort. Let's review the steps one last time. Who can tell me what the 5 steps are for reducing proper fractions to their simplest form?
For homework I want you to complete all the questions on this page. Make sure you show all your work and use scratch paper if you can't fit it all on this sheet. Let's read the directions together and make sure we know how to complete all the problems.

9. Materials:
Vocab terms
Checklist
Pencil
Calculator
Whiteboard/pen
Multiplication Chart
Worksheets
Homework Sheets

Reducing Fractions to Simplest Form

Math Thinking

Use numbers in our sentences

_________________ is a factor of ____________________

_________________ is a multiple of ___________________

Checklist

Step 1: Write factors for numerator and denominator

Step 2: Choose Greatest common factor

Step 3: Reduce fraction by dividing

Step 4: Write the reduced fraction

Step 5: Check answer in calculator