Math Project #5 Diagnostic Monitoring Write-Up Mary Smith Grade: 6th Grade (age: 11) Problem(s) used I created

ed a worksheet that included all the basic components of Fractions (see worksheet attached below) I assessed 3 students (one high, one middle, and one low). Each student was given the worksheet and told to just solve the problems as best they could (without any stress about a grade) and that we would then talk about it afterwards. Student 1 - K.G. (high)
What did you learn about the childs understanding of the mathematical content you were assessing ? K.G. successfully found common denominators to then allow her to successfully add the fractions. She correctly simplified 32/32 to mean 1 whole K.G. successfully found common denominators to successfully subtract fraction. o When she arrived at the answer of 16/32 she didnt readily recognize that she could reduce that to and instead divided to get .50 o After prompting, she recognized that she could just reduce the fraction and that .5 was the same as Didnt recognize that with a denominator of 8 and a denominator of 4, that 8 could be a common denominator. Instead she multiplied 4 and 8 to arrive at 32 as her common denominator. Although correct, interesting that she didnt take the easier, supposedly more obvious route. K.G. knew to multiply straight across the numerators and the denominators when multiplying fractions. Once again she divided to get a decimal rather than just simplifying but reducing the fraction down to a smaller fraction K.G. correctly found the reciprocal of the second fraction and multiplied straight across when presented with a fraction division problem. o The only flaw here was incorrect multiplication (3 x 8 = 24, not 32). o Once again, she divided rather than reducing. Because of incorrect multiplication to begin with, the simplified answer was incorrect o Normally, her multiplication facts are solid, so a mistake here was not cause for concern in my mind. Correctly went through the motions of multiplying the whole number by the denominator and adding in the numerator when converting a mixed number to an improper fraction, but left it as the whole number she computed without putting it over the same denominator. o After prompting, she put her answer over the same denominator to correctly create an improper fraction Also correctly converted the improper fraction to a mixed number by dividing, taking the remainder, and putting it over the same denominator. Correctly explained that a mixed number is a whole number and a fraction combined. Correctly identified an improper fraction as a fraction whose head is bigger than its bottom. Correctly demonstrated 2/5 by dividing a rectangle into 5 equal parts and shading in 2 of them. Adequately explained that the denominator represents how many parts there are and the numerator represents how many you have.

What do you need to do to help this student? K.G. has a thorough knowledge of how to complete operations involving fractions and is able to explain her thinking thoroughly. The thing that is different about K.G. is that she divided to create decimals rather than just reducing the fractions to simplify. Although not wrong, it might be a topic to be reiterated. She did need a few prompts but was able to successfully make adjustments or determine alternate methods to get desired answers. May want to reiterate how to find a common denominator in a simpler, more direct way. May need more of a challenge

Student 2 - H.H. (middle)

Any pertinent information about the child Has a speech impediment (has graduated from speech therapy, but is still affected by it especially when nervous or under pressure) What did you learn about the childs understanding of the mathematical content you were assessing? H.H. correctly identified 8 as a common denominator of 4 and 8 and converted the appropriate fractions to then be able to add or subtract. He correctly reduced the addition problem of 8/8 to be the same as 1 and reduced 4/8 to 2/4 and then to a final answer of . Correctly knew to multiply straight across when multiplying fractions and correctly reduced his fraction to a fraction in simplest terms Knew to find the reciprocal of the second fraction in division and correctly did so. Also switched the division sign to multiplication and correctly multiplied straight across. Final answer of 24/8 was simplified down to the whole number of 3 through division Correctly converted the mixed number to an improper fraction by multiplying the whole number by the denominator and adding it to the numerator, and then putting that number over the same denominator. Converted the mixed number to an improper fraction, arriving at the correct answer but not showing any work. H.H. was able to accurately do the work in his head. Represented the fraction of 2/5 in a drawing of a circle split into 5 equal parts with 2 shaded in. What do you need to do to help this student? Procedures were done quickly, efficiently, and flawlessly. But explaining why or how was hard and required prompting. Is this due to his speech impediment or lack of understanding? Need to find out. May need more of a challenge

Student 3 - K.A. (low)

Any pertinent information about the child ELL student Has an IEP for reduced work load due to a learning disability (slower processor) What did you learn about the childs understanding of the mathematical content you were assessing ? Added fractions straight across without finding common denominators. o Prompted: what do the denominators need to be like before we can add or subtract a fraction? K.A. thought it out and finally said they needed to be the same. I asked her to find common denominators for me. She just sat there for some time and finally said I dont get it? I told her to make the bottom numbers the same and then she set about writing down equivalent fractions. While her thinking is good in writing equivalent fractions to find the ones with the same denominator, unfortunately she skip counted wrong and didnt truly create equivalent fractions. She did find the ones with the same denominators from her (incorrect) list and then correctly kept the denominator the same, but then instead of adding the numerators, she multiplied them

Subtracted fractions straight across without finding a common denominator. But on top of that, she didnt always subtract left to right, and instead subtracted right to left on the denominator so that she was always subtracting the smaller number from the bigger number. Multiplied straight across when multiplying fractions but did not correctly multiply (figuring that 4x8 was 48 but correctly stating that 2x3 was 6) 3/4 divided by 4/8 resulted in an answer of 2/28 showing that she didnt kn ow to find the reciprocal, didnt know to switch to multiplication, and didnt know her division or multiplication facts division of fractions caused the greatest number of errors o Prompted: What do we do with the second fraction when dividing fractions? After some time K.A. remembered that you flip it! Then I asked what happens to the division sign after you flip that second fraction? She remembered after some thought that you change it to times. I asked her to do that for me. She then correctly arrived at her answer of 24/8 o From there, on her own, she noted that it was bigger on the top so you have to divide and she got the correct answer of 3 through an alternate method of division using tally marks and skip counting Didnt know what it even meant to make a mixed number into an improper fraction at first. o After some discussion about what an improper fraction was, she then felt she could do it. o However, she went about the process backwards multiplying the whole number by the numerator and then adding the denominator to get 19. o She knew to keep to the denominator of 4 but at first put that same denominator as the numerator (4/19), then quickly changed it to be 19/4. o I taught her that she was so close but that you actually do it in the opposite order, working from the bottom up. Once I told her that she correctly multiplied the denominator by the whole number and added the numerator. Then she put her answer over the same denominator. o Once seeing an improper fraction and not really realizing that the task was to achieve an improper fraction, she started dividing to turn it back into a mixed number. Division was faulty however, and she got a totally different mixed number. No correlation was made between the two mixed numbers not even matching and that therefore something couldnt be right 28/5: Changed the improper fraction into a mixed number through the process of division and her alternate method of skip counting and writing tally marks. Her answer involved an r for remainder in between the whole number and the remainder which she placed over a denominator of 8 (pulling the last digit from 28 instead of the denominator of 5) Didnt understand my written directions to draw a picture of 2/5, but when I asked her to draw a picture of the fraction she immediately drew a circle and began to split it into pieces. She was unsure of how to create 5 pieces (admittedly that was a hard number to break into pieces within a circle) and accidentally drew 6 (and they were not equal). But when she talked to me about it and said she drew five pieces and shaded in 2 What do you need to do to help this student? K.A. didnt do too bad with procedures after receiving prompts/questions/reminders/clarification/etc. However, even with that, her math was faulty. She was somewhat able to tell me what it was she did, but even that she was unsure of what she really did. And she definitely couldnt explain why or how things worked. K.A. needs some intensive intervention of re-teaching these operations and procedures with clearer instructions and steps, use of manipulatives, explanations of how things work and why we do the procedures the way we do, increased practice (guided and independent), etc.

Questions used for post-worksheet discussion: 1. What steps did you go through to solve this problem? 2. Why did you do that? 3. Tell me more about that? 4. What are the rules of this function/operation? 5. What is easy to do or understand? What is hard or confusing to do or understand? 6. If a problem was solved wrong we discussed how to solve it and they were prompted as to what to actually do, and then they were allowed to try it again Materials Students were only given the worksheet and a pencil. Students (unfortunately) were only taught the standard algorithms (no alternate methods, no use of manipulatives, no explanations as to why or how they work). Because of this, I just wanted to assess their abilities based directly on how they were taught. Further small group interventions can then make use of manipulatives if needed. (See worksheet attached below)

Name: ____________________________________

FRACTIONS!
3 2 ---- + ---4 8

3 2 ---- - ---4 8

3 2 ---- x ---4 8

3 ---4

2 ---8

5 Make it Improper:

28 ----- Make it a mixed number: 5 Draw a picture of 5 2 -----

Rubric Knows that addition and subtraction of fractions Successful Complete understanding
Adds and Subtracts fractions correctly adding/subtracting the numerators, carrying the common denominator across

require finding a common denominator; successfully finds a common denominator

Multiplies fractions straight across; correctly multiplies numbers Divides fractions by flipping the second fraction and multiplying straight across Knows how to simplify/reduce fractions Knows how to convert a mixed number to an improper fraction and an improper fraction to a mixed number Knows how to correctly represent a fraction through a drawing Can explain why they did what they did or how a certain operations works Did not find common denominators when adding/subtracting fractions. Did not carry a common denominator across addition and subtraction of fractions (added/subtracted denominators just like they did with the numerators). Didnt flip the second fraction in division and/or change the sign to multiplication Didnt know how to simplify fractions Couldnt convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers Could not draw a fraction (at all or correctly) Can successfully do half the outlined components in the successful box on their own Can successfully complete incorrect sections of the worksheet after receiving prompts/guidance Can complete operations correctly but are unable to talk about why or how they did it

Unsuccessful No understanding

Partial Understanding