Welcome to Lea!
Today was my first day at Lea. I was really excited because I have been preparing to teach at this school since July when I did my neighborhood study! The 6th grade math and science teacher is really cool. She let me know that I could observe her today but I could also feel free to step in when I wanted. I walked around during both of her math lessons and talked to students about what they were doing. Some students asked me for help. One student asked me if I could check his card for area. The first thing he wrote down was 5 1/2 + 5 1/2 = 11 and next to it he wrote 3 1/2 + 3 1/2 = 7. I asked the student to explain the difference between perimeter and area. We talked about what area means and what his answer meant. Then, I asked him to show me the area on his rectangle. The next answer he got was: 5 1/2 X 3 1/2 = 16. I asked him to explain his thinking. He said he knew 5 X 3 = 15 and then he added 1/2 + 1/2=1 then he added 15 + 1=16. We talked about if you can add the fractions like that when you multiply. I asked him if I could show him another way to figure out the area. We turned the rectangle into a grid. I wanted the student to see what "square units" look like and why they are the way they are. Here is what our work looked like:
After we did this, the student wanted to do more. We unfortunately didn't get a chance to finish, but here is what we started. I wanted the student to start with two integers and then move to fractions like the one he did with me.