Shaunquetta N. Johnson
The Common Core State Standards have shifted the emphasis to students explaining their thinking rather than assessing their learning through paper and pencil testing. The standards hold students accountable for rational thinking and reasoning. Moreover, it's important to understand how students arrived at an answer, rather than merely students getting the correct answer. Students need to understand and explain the "why" and "how" behind an answer. In this unit, students will use visual representation to understand, represent, and compare fractions. Students will explain their thinking and reasoning pictorially.
In accordance with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Grade 3, this unit addresses the following standards:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.1 Understand a fraction 1/
b
as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into
b
equal parts; understand a fraction
a
/
b
as the quantity formed by
a
parts of size 1/
b
.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.2
Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a number line diagram.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.3 Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size.
