An exclusive interview with our newest math teaching tool: FRACTION TILES
Amy: “Mr Fraction Tiles, can I call you Mr.T for short? We are so happy to have you in our office. Can you tell our volunteers a little bit about yourself?
Mr T: Of course! I guess you could say that I have many layers. I mean, there’s one part of me that’s obvious, uncomplicated, and whole. But then, if you look a bit deeper, you’ll see that I divide myself among other interests and identities. It’s just a reality of modern life. I think we can all relate to that.
Amy: I agree. How do you think you can help our students at Project Read?
Mr T: Thanks for asking! I think fractions have been frustrating and confusing for many of our students in the past, and I’m here to give them a concrete way to practice adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions in a way that they can see and feel.
Amy: Can you give us an example of that?
Mr T: Sure! It can start with something as simple as comparing ½ and 1/12. 12 is larger than 2, but 1/12 is much smaller than ½. My tiles show that a large number in the denominator means that the fraction’s value is pretty small. Let me show you a video of some other things I can do.
Amy: You must be so proud of your work.
Mr T: Well our volunteers and students are the real heroes. Sometimes teachers will just lay out my fraction tiles and let the students talk about what they notice. I’ve seen some students make some pretty cool discoveries that way.
Amy: Amen to that! Volunteers and tutors, please come to the Project Read office to see how Fraction Tiles can help you and your student build a stronger math literacy foundation.
