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Research Poster PresentationsP O S T E R 1 0 7Teaching Fractions AcrossElementary GradesKimberly DiGregorio and Jillian PopperFaculty Mentor: Prof. Judit KerekesDepartment of EducationOnce these students progress in their educationalyears and enter into the fourth grade, the difficultylevel will increase, and students will becomeexposed to lessons on comparing fractions.Fractions are an important concept to teachbecause they can appear intimidating to somestudents. In order to teach a successfulcomprehensive lesson on fractions to all gradelevels, manipulatives must be incorporated. Byproviding students with tangible objects helps thestudents to gain an understanding of fractions inrelation to a whole and seeing a comparisonbetween two equivalent fractions. Whether usingfractions to split costs, keep score, ensure fairness,or balancing a budget, fractions will appear in manyaspects of the student’s future lives. Students willcontinue to use fractions even after they havegraduated from school, so it is imperative thatstudents develop an understanding for the conceptin their primary learning stage. If one fails to teachfractions correctly, students may never gainownership of the idea of fractions. In our lessonstaught to second grade and fourth grade honors, weboth provided the opportunity for each class togain knowledge of fractions through real-lifesituations to enhance their understanding. Duringboth lessons, we taught multiple ways to solvefraction problems to appeal to every learner. Whenteaching how to compare fractions to the fourthgrade honors class, methods such as “drawing itout” using illustrations, manipulating fractionmagnets, cross multiplying, and finding thecommon denominator, allowed the students to seefractions clearly in ascending and descending order.When teaching parts of a whole, manipulitives suchas pennies, chocolate bars, m&m’s, and flowerpedals were used to make connections to fractionsto the second grade students.74