Fraction Bars is a total program of manipulatives, activities, games, worksheets, performance objectives, tests, and computer games for teaching all fraction concepts. Since it was first introduced in the late nineteen sixties, Fraction Bars has continued to gain wide national acceptance as a successful method for teaching all fraction concepts and operations.
The Fraction Bars program uses a conceptual approach throughout, as supported by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
"Teachers can also help students add and subtract fractions correctly by helping them develop meaning for numerator, denominator, and equivalence and by encouraging them to use benchmarks and estimation…. Students who have a solid conception foundation in fractions should be less prone to committing computational errors than students who do not have such a foundation."*
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NCTM Standards 2000, page 218
The student in the following photo is placing the Fraction Bar for 1/2 on a 5-Bars mat to compare shaded amounts to determine equivalencies of fractions. She is using "homemade" mats and bars that were developed before Fraction Bars were commercially produced in the early nineteen seventies.
The Fraction Bars program successfully uses manipulatives, diagrams, and oral language to develop the concepts of fractions. The philosophy of presenting activities with concrete models before introducing fractions and their terminology is consistent with recommendations in the Standards:
"Representing numbers with various physical materials should be a major part of mathematics instruction in the elementary school grades. … As students gain understanding of numbers and how to represent them, they have a foundation for understanding relationships among numbers."*
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> NCTM Standards 2000, page 33
Fraction Bars Step By Step Teacher's Guide has seven sections with the topics of Basic Concepts, Equality, Inequality, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. The first step (lesson) of each section is called Readiness and develops one or more concepts for the section before the introduction of fraction symbols and terminology. Each step is contained on two facing pages with objectives, activities, lists of materials, and references to related games, worksheets, computer programs, and performance tests. New to this edition are activities with Blank Fraction Bars, Problem Solving, Writing About Fractions, and Quotations with Connections to Standards 2000, which are included in many of the lessons. Also new to this edition are interactive Fraction Bars Games which can be accessed on fractionbars.com. Brief descriptions of these games are included in this guide in the appropriate lessons. Another important feature of the teacher's guide is the Relating Fractions and Decimals in the Appendix. Standards 2000 stresses the importance of presenting fractions and decimals as equivalent ways of representing numbers. Relating Fractions and Decimals has over 20 activities that are integrated into the appropriate lessons.
_________________________________________
*Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, Virginia: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000.
