{{custom.firstName}},

I love this unit. Division of fractions is the kind of idea that is very easy to learn operationally and very hard to learn conceptually, to learn in ways that lead to flexible and sturdy understanding. Let's make this happen together!

We'd love to help you invite lots of student ideas during this unit. Student ideas—right answers, wrong answers, developing answers, wild answers—are the blocks you and they will use to build their understanding later.

Start with their senses.

When we’re dividing fractions, it can feel very tempting to start with calculations, with shortcuts and mnemonics that are well known and which I won't repeat here. Instead, consider starting with students’ senses whenever possible, with their concrete and visual understanding of the world. Watch what can happen.

When you reach this screen, consider asking your students to close their laptops halfway and just predict, using their senses alone, the number of flowers that will fill the planter. Students will offer a range of answers. Some will be correct. Some will not.

All of those concrete and sensory answers will serve as a useful guide for your students' thinking as you help them develop their abstract and numerical understanding of division of fractions.

Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team

PS. Please give us feedback on the last lesson.

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