Change the Divisor; What is the corresponding change in the quotient? It’s the RECIPROCAL

Change the Divisor; What is the corresponding change in the quotient? It’s the RECIPROCAL

The tables are provided for my sixth-graders to design their own fraction word problems. As the title suggests, students will then investigate what happens to the quotient when they change the divisor. This first table guides students through designing an initial set of problems. The second table provides a broader, less defined set of choices.

building word problems

Continue reading

The Divisors and the Quotients: as one increases, the other decreases; they move together as reciprocals

The Divisors and the Quotients: as one increases, the other decreases; they move together as reciprocals

One goal for my sixth-graders is for them to think about fractions most days throughout the school year. That thinking is not simply solving problems, but exploring the relationships of the numbers within the problems. An example is teaching kids why they multiply by the reciprocal to solving a “dividing by fraction” problem.

Continue reading