Grade 5 · Math · Fractions
A ten-minute check: did it stick?
A short check on adding and subtracting fractions, built to be repeated
أ. سارة بنعلي
مدرسة أ
Eight short questions answered on screen, with the fraction bar revealed after the answer instead of before it. The student learns whether each one was right the moment they answer, and leaves ten minutes later knowing where they stand.
This page is exactly what a teacher's published work will look like. Only the teacher is not real yet.
What the student does
- 1
Answer before the picture
The question is numbers and nothing else. No bar, no drawing, until the answer is committed.
- 2
The bar appears
After the answer, the bar comes up shaded to the correct result, and the student compares what they wrote with what they see.
- 3
Say where the two differ
One question after every slip: was the difference in the numerator or in the denominator? No explanation, no second attempt.
- 4
Done inside ten minutes
Eight questions, kept short on purpose so it can be taken again the same week.
What's inside
- 8 questions marked the moment they are answered
- A fraction bar that appears after the answer, not before
- Two closing questions on subtracting from a whole
Outcomes
Adds and subtracts two fractions with the same denominator in under a minute a question.
Writes the result in its simplest form without the question telling them to.
Says for themselves whether the slip was in the numerator or the denominator.
What the teacher focused on
I hid the bar on purpose. A student who sees the picture before answering reads the answer off the drawing, and then I cannot tell understanding apart from looking.
Teaching strategies
- Retrieval before the hint
- The picture as a correction, not a crutch
- A short check taken often, instead of a long one taken once
She has the bar appear after the answer, and turned down keeping it on screen the way her interactive lesson does. A bar you can see teaches; a bar you cannot see measures. Neither one does the other's job.
Questions from inside it
- 1Write 7/12 + 2/12 in its simplest form.
- 2Ahmed drank 3/8 of the juice and Sara drank 2/8 of it. How much is left?
- 3Which is larger: 5/6 − 1/6, or 3/6 + 2/6?
Curriculum
- Grade
- Grade 5
- Subject
- Math
- Unit
- Fractions
- Taught in
- Jordan
Where this lesson sits in the curriculum
The same lesson appears in these countries' curricula. One page, five paths to it.
When to use it
The explanation
Two fractions with the same denominator are measured in the same unit, so they add and subtract straight, the way whole numbers do. 3 eighths and 4 eighths make 7 eighths, exactly as 3 pens and 4 pens make 7 pens. The denominator is the unit's name, and a name does not change when you count.
Common mistakes it catches
He subtracted the 1 from the numerator. The whole here is 8/8, because the pieces are eighths, and 8/8 − 5/8 = 3/8. The question that fixes it: how many parts is this whole cut into?
The denominator fell off under time pressure. 9 of what? A number with no denominator is not a fraction. Have the answer read aloud: «9 twelfths».
Right, and not finished. 9 and 12 both divide by 3, so the simplest form is 3/4. The check is short on purpose, so there is room in the clock for that last step.