Fractions. You see them on your scope and sequence and know what time of the year they roll around. You may have the chapter dog-eared in your textbook with sticky notes of ideas to try in the future. But you’re not alone if you anticipate challenges.
Historically, your students struggle with the abstract nature of fractions, and you’re constantly rushed and stretched thin to catch students up on the basic concepts. By the end of the unit, you’re left with a few class periods for hands-on practice, but your students really didn’t grasp the fractions concepts the way you know they could. If only you had more time (or your students were better prepared). Maybe next year…
How would teaching fractions feel different if you didn't have to spend the first several weeks of your unit (or all of it?) re-teaching concepts and skills students should already know? What would instruction look like if you could guarantee that all your students started with the understanding and skills your standards assume they should have already acquired?
Using ExploreLearning Frax, you can prepare your students for your fractions unit so they arrive with baseline knowledge and confidence to tackle advanced fractions work during your core instruction.
Why is a foundational understanding of fractions important?
Like many things in education, you can’t control students' prior experience and instruction. As a result, you dedicate a bulk of instructional time and energy to assessing students’ background knowledge and providing remediation for students whose prior instruction (or lack thereof) has left them with significant learning gaps in understanding and skills.
But knowledge of fractions isn’t just important for your present-day instruction. Research shows that a conceptual understanding of fractions significantly impacts students’ future understanding of algebra and advanced math. Students who have a firm grasp of fraction number sense (understanding that fractions are numbers that can be rewritten in different forms) will be much better prepared than students who rely solely on memorized procedures.
What is the easiest way to understand fractions? Fraction magnitude plays a significant role in understanding fractions and fraction number sense. Fraction magnitude (size) knowledge begins when students view fractions as numbers. Students must adequately understand fraction magnitude to reason with and about fractions in various contexts, such as comparing fractions or fraction arithmetic.
But what is the best way to introduce fractions?
Improve fractions understanding: Use Frax before instruction
What if just 13 hours of highly engaging work (spread over a month or more) in a game-based environment could save you and your students days and weeks of frustration?
With Frax, an adaptive and game-based fractions platform, your students can develop a baseline understanding of concepts, a shared ability to perform fraction skills, and a mutual belief that fractions make as much sense as other familiar numbers (and that they’re fun, too). Using Frax to introduce fractions before your fractions unit provides a platform for shared classroom understanding.
For example, if your class completes Frax Sector 1 before your instructional unit, you can assume a mutual knowledge of topics that will allow you to quickly build a more robust understanding of concepts. Learning fractions becomes easier, and you can gain more autonomy and creativity with your teaching.
After completing Frax, you can be confident that all students have had significant experience and work with key fraction concepts and skills, such as:
- Representing fractions using length models, number lines, and shaded area models
- Number line placement and estimation
- Magnitude comparison
- Early practice with equivalence
- …and even ruler measurement!
You can supercharge your instruction when students have had significant practice with these key concepts. When students connect what you actively teach with what they previously experienced in Frax, you can accelerate learning in powerful ways. Learners will begin your unit with a solid understanding of fractions as numbers, which will propel them forward to understand the impact of a numerator and denominator on a fraction’s size (location), estimate a fraction's size, compare fractions, and more.
“I was in the middle of teaching a new fraction lesson, and a student yelled, ‘We learned this on Frax!’ The early exposure is so helpful and will help them with the state test.”
-Teacher. Burlington Township School District, NJ
Frax unlocks your ability to teach fractions concepts in the ways you often long to but find yourself prevented from doing so because of the wide differences in student performance and the need to get all students to a baseline level of performance. Using Frax before your fractions unit also creates opportunities for meaningful discourse. When students develop a shared understanding of key concepts with Frax, they approach classroom conversations with the fractions concepts, skills, and vocabulary before they begin your unit.
Reduce fractions anxiety with engaging lessons
If students struggle with fractions, they will naturally experience frustration and discouragement. This might lead to math anxiety or a fear of math. Fractions can often be the place where math stops “making sense” to students, leading to a lack of math confidence for years to come. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Another benefit of using Frax before your instruction is that it improves students’ overall attitude toward fractions and math. Frax makes fractions fun and approachable through game-based conceptual learning. Rather than de-mystifying fractions, Frax keeps them from being mysterious in the first place!
Throughout Frax, students learn that fractions are just like other numbers—they have predictable names and locations on the number line, and they can be compared to each other. Advanced work with fractions becomes less intimidating, more intuitive, and enjoyable when students develop this foundational understanding.
Frax missions are structured as game-based challenges, allowing students to learn by doing as they progress through carefully scaffolded fraction activities. Student learning occurs in a space-themed environment packed with fraction games, music, custom avatars, personalized space cabins, and more. The platform makes math fun and engaging with frequent rewards for effort and progress.
After playing math games and unlocking achievements, students earn tokens they can spend in the store to customize their spaceship quarters. They can gain additional practice in Frax and unlock more tokens in the game-packed Review Room.
Accelerate student learning with fraction foundations
When you can begin fractions instruction with a shared level of background knowledge, you open the door for learning acceleration and increased student learning outcomes. ESSA Tier II research found that students who used Frax met or exceeded growth benchmarks at significantly higher rates. And new data revealed that when students used both Reflex and Frax, they were 2.5x more likely to meet or exceed on-grade level math proficiency by the end of 3rd grade compared to non-users.
While Frax can increase student achievement and math performance in a short amount of instructional time, the benefits aren’t only for students. When your learners approach a fractions unit with a shared foundational understanding of math concepts, you are empowered to teach in ways only you can do best. Instructional time opens up for advanced project-based learning, classroom discourse, group work, and more that wouldn’t be possible without a conceptual knowledge of fractions.
“Frax has not only been a huge success with student motivation but my students are highly engaged in the games and learning. We began the program before fractions were introduced, so students were given a preview opportunity. As soon as we began the unit, students would mention the connections they saw with Frax. It helped to build self-confidence in my students and they were highly engaged in the lessons during the unit as well.”
-Teacher. Camden County Schools, GA
Are you ready to accelerate learning before your fractions unit? Try Frax today with a trial or explore grant opportunities for full-year classroom access.
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