Full Description

Beyond Pizzas & Pies is all about building a foundational understanding of fractions

This book helps teachers and students understand fractions as numbers, including the use of equivalency and thinking about benchmark numbers, so that when students start to compute with fractions (see the companion volume, Beyond Invert & Multiply), they have a solid foundation.

You’ll find:

• Classroom Scenarios that address common challenges students (and teachers!) encounter as they acquire an understanding of fractions
• What’s the Math? sections intended to clarify the mathematics
• What’s the Research? insights that show why “that’s the way we’ve always done things” might not be the most successful approach
• Classroom Activities with friendly, step-by-step instructions and video clips demonstrating how to teach the concepts
• Reproducibles that are available in a downloadable format
• Study Questions at the end of each chapter that encourage readers to set concrete goals for implementing what they’ve read

This resource features 30 streaming video clips filmed in actual classrooms so you can see this work in action.

Additional Resource Information

(click any section below to continue reading)

Contents

Foreword by Francis (Skip) Fennell

A Letter from Math Coach Lori MacDonald

Chapter 1: The Problem with Partitioning: It’s Not Just About Counting the Pieces

Chapter 2: Top or Bottom: Which One Matters? Helping Students Reason About Generalizations Regarding Numerators and Denominators

Chapter 3: Understanding Equivalency: How Can Double Be the Same?

Chapter 4: Fraction Kits: Friend or Foe?

Chapter 5: Is 1/2 Always Greater Than 1/3? The Importance of Context in Identifying the Unit

Chapter 6: How Come 1/5 ≠ .15? Helping Students Make Sense of Fraction and Decimal Notation

Chapter 7: The Multiple Meanings of Fractions: Beyond Pizzas and Pies

Chapter 8: Comparing Fractions: Do You Always Need a Common Denominator?

Reviews

"Beyond Pizzas & Pies expertly presents the essential concepts that teachers must fully understand so they can teach students to develop a deep conceptual understanding of fractions. By presenting ten critical strategies for developing fraction sense, McNamara and Shaughnessy provide a tightly scaffolded plan for both teachers and students that is easy to follow and goes well beyond the usual teacher manuals and math texts commonly used in upper elementary school classrooms."
—Maggie Riddle, Director of Schools, Berkeley Unified School District, California

"The authors are right on—developing 'fraction sense' is one of the most difficult tasks of new (or experienced ) teachers. This book and the accompanying video clips provide a wonderful resource for helping teachers help their students become truly fluent with fractions."
—Barbara Reys, Curators’ Professor and Lois Knowles Faculty Fellow, University of Missouri, Columbia