Students are busy integrating narrative with fractions and models to tell a math story. As students create these tales, they are learning to use a number of online tools to illustrate the meaning of the math.
The students who worked independently or with small groups have been mostly left to their own on this project so far since I've been focused on helping other students complete a number of mandatory learning tasks. Today I'll review the project assignment and rubric with students. Then on Sunday, I'll make the time to review the projects that have been shared with me via Google docs. I expect that I'll add a lot of comments to projects to encourage project corrections and extensions.
Since I have a lot of standard teaching to do, I'll allow this project to continue as an additional opportunity for students to study, solidify, and enrich their understanding of all fifth grade fraction concepts.
At our school, we generally coach all projects to mastery; we work with students until they reach a high level of performance. That's what I'll do with these fraction projects, projects that will prepare students well with regard to showing what they know and applying that knowledge to a meaningful and creative context.
