Bowker+Kim

Hello, My name is Kim Bowker and I am a full inclusion teacher at Talley Middle school. I have been working at Brandywine school district for 25 years. Technology is very new to me in the past few years. I am enjoying learning the computer, but I am very technologically impaired. I want to use technology in my classes but don't know how to get the equipment needed. As it is very expensive to buy a projector to project to the board.


 * Step one: To help students with the understanding of fractions in order to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions.

Part One: Right now my students come to math class and don't have the basic understanding of fractions as a part of a whole number. They do not understand the parts of a fraction to be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide the fractions. Using technology and hands-on manipulatives to understand the parts of a fraction. Help students to understand the fraction as a whole number. I use the hands-on method with card board circles cut into 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8 and have parts of each type of circle. I show but they don't get to manipulate themselves. It needs improvement because some students need to manipulate and see for longer or more quantities of times used. The technology that I would use is the "Gizmos" math lab. and other technologies that the kids can get on and self learn about fractions so they can move at own pace. We will also have class lessons and small group understanding.

Part Two: To teach understanding of the parts of a fraction and what they mean. The technology students will use is the Gizmo lab to learn the fractions. We will sign up for the computer lab when new ideas are introduced to explore the new concept. Then we will have a class discussion and we will also play on the computer some games that work with those concepts. Using sites such as: [|www.mathisfun.com]; [|www.mathplayground.com]; http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspResourceCatalog;

Step 2: Decide on objectives and assessment goals 1. Students will be able to identify the parts of a fraction and understand what they mean with 90% accuracy. 2. Students will be able to tell how many parts will be needed to make a whole 90% of the time. (a whole broken into 4 parts needs 4/4 to make 1 whole).** 4. Students will understand the more parts a whole is broken into, the smaller the parts are at 100%
 * 3. Students will be able to understand that you cannot have different denominators when you add and subtract with 100% understanding.

Step 3: Design of the lesson 1. Give your students a pretest and You will have to sign your students in as a class on the first day in the computer lab. ( I will type out the directions for the students and have them sign in) 2. I would talk about fractions and ask them what they already know. 3. Have the students play on the Gizmos on explorelearning.com and let them explore their understanding. Walk around the room and answer questions as needed. Days 2-3 4. After the exploration time have the students go on and take the on-line test and print their scores. 5. 5th day have them in small groups working on group papers and have them each do a problem and be ready to explain it to the class. Using overhead or blackboard or word document or power point. 6. Test the parts of the fractions and what they mean. Begin the adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing of fractions the next week. We will have each student present their understanding of their problem at the end of each class starting with the highest test score to the lowest test score to give that student more time for understanding. 7. The students will work independently on the computer, they will work in groups of fours on the**