Thursday, February 7, 2019

Multiplying Fractions

This week, I wanted to focus on multiplying fractions to continue with my fraction theme. Multiplying fractions, although not super difficult, does require a bit of practice to get back into the hang of how to do it. That was the case for me, at least. When researching different ways to learn, as well as teach, this subject - I came across this website: https://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions_multiplication.html

I found this website to be very useful, because it really broke down the different steps in a clear and concise way. First, the link provides three steps in order to begin the process of multiplying fractions. These steps are:

1) Multiply the top numbers (numerators)
2) Multiply the bottom numbers (denominators)
3) Simplify the fraction (if needed)

Sounds easy enough, right?!

So - lets take 2/3 x 3/5 as an example. If I follow the aforementioned steps, I would first need to multiply the numerators (2 x 3 = 6); then the denominators (3 x 5 =15). The answer would be 6/15. Then to simplify this, I would need to think of a factor that goes into both numbers, and how many times that factor goes into the number. For 6/15, a common factor is 3. 3 goes into 6 two times (3 x 2 =6), and 3 goes into 15 five times (3 x 5 =15). Simplified, the new answer would be 2/5 (both the numerator and denominator were divided by the common factor of 3 to get this result).

The "Math is Fun" website provided these graphic step-by-step directions, which I found to be very useful when thinking about how to explain this concept to elementary students. The website also illustrated this using a "pizza pie" fraction, which I loved! Who doesn't love pizza?!?!

Pizza Pie & Fractions:

Next week, I think I'll focus on dividing fractions. I want to remind myself *how* to divide fractions - but perhaps more importantly, effective ways to *teach* students how to divide fractions. Math doesn't need to be so scary for students if it's taught in a fun and approachable way. In writing these blog posts, that has been the biggest takeaway for me thus far.


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1 comment:

  1. Danielle HoffmanFebruary 11, 2019 at 6:40 AM

    Hi Prianka!

    I love that you're focusing on fractions- I check back every week to help refresh my memory because fraction work seems like a lifetime ago...

    Multiplying fractions was always tricky for me so this is super helpful! Good thing I tuned in this week because I honestly thought that you multiply the numerators and keep the denominators... whoops. I love that you broke it down into steps and then gave an example, and the pizza image for simplifying is such a clever tool- kids love any examples that involve food, especially pizza. It's a great way to show that it will be a smaller fraction, since you're multiplying it by a fraction (which, obviously, is less than one) so it will be less than itself.



    Can't wait for dividing fractions since I definitely benefit from these reviews!

    Danielle

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