Unit Rates with Complex Fractions
Objective: Students will be able to find unit rates involving complex fractions.
Big Idea: Have you ever seen the big mac of fractions? This lesson tackles complex fractions!
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Launch
Opener: As students enter the room, they will immediately pick up and begin working on the opener – Instructional Strategy - Process for openers. This method of working and going over the opener lends itself to allow students to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, which is mathematical practice 3.
Learning Target: After completion of the opener, I will address the day’s learning targets to the students. In today’s lesson, the intended target is, “I can calculate unit rates using complex fractions.” Students will jot the learning target down in their agendas (our version of a student planner, there is a place to write the learning target for every day).
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Instruction: Unit Rates with Complex Fractions Video
Table Practice: Coming off some straightforward examples, I want to give students an opportunity to now grapple with the mathematics – and take these complex fractions to the next level. In these table examples, students are not only asked to find unit rates using complex fractions, but also compare these rates. For fun, I often ask my students to take a guess at which one they think is going to be the “winner” based on what is in the problem, and then I have them work it out and get an answer. The beauty of this is that often times they are wrong, so they see that guessing isn’t such a good idea. These examples model the use of complex fractions in the real world, which is mathematical practice 4, and require students to reason abstractly and quantitatively, mathematical practice 2. Additionally, students will need to persevere with problem solving, as I am going to be hands off! (mathematical practice 1).
Summary + Homework
Instructional Strategy - Table Discussion: To summarize this lesson, I want to bring students back to where the lesson started – what are complex fractions. Students will discuss the table question and I will take tables to share out.
Homework: After the table discussion I will pass out the day’s homework and let kids look it over and ask any questions they may have.
