Researchers collaborated with a team of third-grade teachers in an urban district in the Upper Midwest to examine misunderstandings among students when using the number line as a model for fractions. Researchers looked closely at how the number line can be used as a model to build meaning for fractions for third-grade students. This article…

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) outlines ambitious goals for fraction learning, starting in third grade, that include the use of the number line model. Understanding and constructing fractions on a number line are particularly complex tasks. The current work of the authors centers on ways to successfully…

Fraction division is generally introduced in sixth or seventh grade with this rule: "Invert and multiply." The authors examined current commercial curricula and found that few textbooks use context as a way to build meaning for the division of fractions. When context is used, the connection between the invert-and-multiply rule and the context is…