Biking on the fractional number line . . .

The following post comes from Rafael Quintanilla, a Mathematics Instructional Coach for the Los Angeles Unified School District and a long-time teacher of number strings.

About eight years ago, I was teaching fifth grade and I wanted students to begin to see relationships between halves, fourths and eighths, be able to decompose fractions into unit fractions, and have an understanding of scaling when multiplying.  So I decided to write and try out some strings that focused on benchmark fractions as helpers and then go from there.  I used a number line as a model because that is what we tended to use as a fraction model because the students were able to connect it to real life applications.  I decided to use the context of a bicycle ride because students can relate to to riding bicycles and because they can picture a straight bicycle ride (I let them know I ride my bicycle on the riverbed next to my house), hence the number line.

Students are really engaged in this string because as the string develops, I tell a story of why we stopped at certain places. Some of the “look-fors” in the string is that students might  just give you numbers instead of saying the numbers represent miles on a bicycle ride.  Be careful because students will see the numeric patterns that exist but not make connections that these numbers represent fractional distances on the ride.

Multiplying Fractions by a Whole Number

Model: Number Line

Context: On weekends, my friend and I enjoy riding our bicycles. Our goal is 24 miles. But sometimes, we stop for breaks.

Draw number and teacher labels 0 miles on left side and 24 miles on right side

String:

1/2 of 24 (“tell the story, we stopped half way through the bike ride to get ice cream”)

(take one or two strategies, helper problem)

 1/4 of 24 (“Oh, I forgot, we also stopped one fourth of the way to drink some water”)

(take one or two strategies, helper problem)

3/4 of 24

(this is where the string begins to develop, allow more time, ask students to think-pair-share and then model their thinking whole class)

1/8 of 24 

(take one or two strategies, helper problem)

3/8 of 24

(this is where the string continues to develop, allow more time, ask students to think-pair-share and then model their thinking whole class)

7/8 of 24 

(this is where the string continues to develop, allow more time, ask students to think-pair-share and then model their thinking whole class)

5/8 of 24

(usually comes up during other problems or else you can use it as your last problem)

Two notes:

1. Keep in mind that the goal of the string is to multiply fractions by a whole number. Therefore, the teacher puts the tick mark on the number and labels the fraction.  The students are computing the number of miles and developing strategies.
2. The goal of the lessons is to allow students to discuss the relationship between the fraction and the whole. The goal is not to determine where the fraction is located on a line. That is why the teacher marks the location. Also do not worry about rushing into writing the expression or equation.