This section of the Resource site has been created to support the development of Number Sense in the area of Fractions, Decimals and Percents for grades 6, 7 and 8. Teachers are encouraged to support student learning using a variety of think alouds to continue building a community of mathematical thinkers. Teachers should be familiar with the strategies from Lawson continua and can support student thinking by referencing the strategies when consolidating learning.
The Fraction, Decimal, Percent think aloud samples have been collated based on grade level and specific expectation. The expectation chart shows the learning for each grade. Sample think alouds can be found by scrolling down the page of each topic area.
Key Considerations for Using the FDP grade 6,7,8 resource:
Prior to teaching content, get a sense of where your students are at. You could try a number talk, give a few diagnostic questions to be completed independently, or use gameshow mode in Knowledgehook.
If my students are missing some key learning, do I need to go back and to build their knowledge?
Can I make the learning more accessible to my students? (For example, adding in tools, using differentiation)
Many of the think aloud tasks (number talks, math talks, games, activities, and problem solving) are connected to other grade level expectations, as well as, expectations across grade levels. For this reason, some tasks may be found more than once.
Prioritize fractional understanding before decimals and percents. “It is fractional reasoning that forms the basis of understanding for each of these rational number representations. Students often treat decimals and percentages as whole numbers in their reasoning, and in doing so they lose the relationship between the parts and the whole.” (Sherry Parrish)
Please visit the dropdown menu for the expectation topics to find the resources for that section or navigate with the links below.
B.1 Rational and Irrational Numbers | B.1 Fractions Decimals Percents | B.2 Math Facts and Mental Math | B.2 Add & Subtract Fractions | B.2 Multiplication and Division