USING STORY PROBLEMS TO TEACH FRACTIONS

Susan Empson & Vicki Jacobs

1. Begin with story problems and pose them throughout fraction instruction to help children
develop understanding for fractions and fraction operations.
• Benefits
o Children can use story contexts to make sense of fraction amounts and acting on them.
o You can connect the story contexts to children’s strategies during questioning. This
connection helps children make sense of the mathematics and helps you learn about
children’s understandings.
o Children can avoid problematic conceptions of fractions (e.g., one fourth is 1 “out of” 4)
that often result from typical introductions to fractions, such as asking children to name
fractions by counting pieces in geometric shapes that are already partitioned and shaded.
• Implementation Tips
o Encourage children to use strategies that make sense to them instead of requiring that
they replicate specific strategies that have been demonstrated.
o Give children opportunities to discuss their strategies and mathematical ideas in both one-
on-one conversations with you and in small- or whole-class discussions. Be curious and ask
questions about the details of their strategies.
o Encourage children to draw their own pictures and create their own fraction amounts
instead of using pre-cut manipulatives (e.g., fraction circles or fraction strips). Do not
worry if children’s pictures are not “exact.” You can talk with them about their pictures to
help you distinguish artistic issues from conceptual issues. Discussing children’s drawings
can help children reason about important ideas that are typically hidden in pre-cut
manipulatives (e.g., all pieces are meant to be the same size).

2. Introduce fractions with Equal Sharing Equal Sharing (Partitive Division)

(Partitive Division) problems to help children At a birthday party, 4 children are
develop meaning for fraction amounts. These sharing 10 brownies so that everyone
problems are powerful and should be used gets the same amount. How much
extensively throughout fraction instruction. brownie can each child get?

These problems allow children to engage in creating fraction amounts by drawing things that are
familiar (e.g., brownies), partitioning those things, and then attaching fraction names and symbols
to fraction amounts that are meaningful to them. Because the problem statements for many
Equal Sharing problems only contain whole numbers, most children can use their whole-number
strategies to get started even if they cannot use fraction names or symbols for the answer.
• Pose problems with a reasonable number of sharers. Begin with numbers that invite halving
or repeated halving (2, 4, or 8 sharers) and numbers, such as 3 sharers, that lead to fraction
amounts with small denominators that can easily be visualized.
• Pose problems with more things than number of sharers. Pose problems like 4 children share
10 brownies before posing 4 children share 1 brownie. When each sharer can at least receive
one whole brownie, children can more easily build on their whole-number strategies because
they have the option of passing out whole brownies.
 • Pose problems with a variety of contexts.
o Consider children’s familiarity with and interest in the contexts. Take time to “launch” the
problems in ways that give every child access to the contexts.
o Consider variety in the shapes of things to be shared. Children need opportunities to see
how the same fraction can look different in different contexts. Varying the shapes can help
(e.g., a rectangular bar of clay vs. a circular cake).
o Be sensitive to children’s varying interpretations of contexts. Children connect with the
contexts and their strategies often reflect literal interpretations. Children’s strategies may
therefore include non-mathematical reasoning, such as reasoning based on personal
experiences or cultural practices. For instance, children may not want to partition pizzas
into sevenths, because their personal experiences with pizzas do not include sevenths. Or
children may initially be hesitant to give adults and children an equal amount of food
when their family practices operate differently. Asking children about their reasoning—
rather than assuming that their reasoning is incorrect—provides an opportunity to learn
more about not only the children’s mathematical reasoning but also their out-of-school
mathematics.
• Delay introducing fraction names and symbols until children understand the concepts
behind them. Give children time to use direct modeling strategies and then attach fraction
names or symbols to the amounts children create. As children are learning, allow them to:
o Write out fraction names (e.g., 1 third burrito)
o Represent their answer as a sum of two different-size fractions (e.g., 1/2 + 1/6 burrito)
o Leave fractions without simplifying them (e.g., 6/8 burrito instead of 3/4 burrito).

Measurement
Multiplication
Division
3. Use special multiplication and division
Fatima put 1/3 cup of Sam has 6 pancakes.
problems before addition and subtraction
beans into each pot of How many children
problems to help children think about
chili that she makes. If can he feed if he gives
fractions as amounts that can be
she wants to make 6 pots 1/2 of a pancake to
decomposed (and put back together).
of chili, how many cups each child?
of beans will she need?

• Use multiplication and measurement division problems that include a whole number of
groups and a fraction amount in each group. These special multiplication and division
problems are accessible to young children and help deepen their fraction knowledge.
• Pose problems with unit fractions—"superhero fractions”—throughout fraction instruction,
not just at the beginning.
o Work with unit fractions helps children understand that one whole can be seen as both
one whole and as a grouping of same-size unit fraction amounts.
o Work with unit fractions helps children understand non-unit fractions—4/5 is the same as
four one-fifths.
2
 4. Use addition and subtraction Addition Missing Addend Subtraction
story problems to help Merlin has 1 3/4 Caleb has 6 3/4 rolls Mariana had 3
children further develop bags of magic of bandages for his sandwiches. She
meaning for fraction amounts beans. His mummy costume. ate 1/4 of a
and symbols. apprentice gives His costume requires sandwich. How
(Mixed numbers are him 2 3/4 bags of 9 1/4 rolls of many sandwiches
particularly helpful for magic beans. How bandages. How did she have left?
encouraging flexibility in many bags of many more rolls
decomposing wholes and magic beans does does he need to
fractions in a variety of ways.) Merlin have now? finish his costume?

5. Address equivalence by revisiting the above problem types with strategically selected numbers
that require children to reason about the relationship between different-size fractions.
• Equal sharing problems with certain numbers of sharers and things to share are likely to
produce a variety of fraction answers that can be compared in discussions of equivalence.
(When the two numbers have common factors, more answers are likely.)

Equal Sharing (Partitive Division) Likely Answers

The kindergarten teacher is setting up 8 sandboxes for his
6/8
students. He has 6 bags of sand to distribute equally among
3/4
the boxes. How much sand can he put in each box?
12/18
Jade has 12 pounds of jellybeans to share equally with her
6/9
friends. If there are 18 people altogether, how much can
4/6
each person have?
2/3

• Relationships between unit fractions are the building blocks of equivalence. For instance, the
relationship between 1/3 and 1/6 includes understanding that partitioning 1/3 in half results
in 1/6 and 1/6. Posing a variety of story problems that include these types of relationships is
particularly useful for helping children build meaning for equivalence.

Equal Sharing There are 2 dogs at the shelter, and I need them to equally share 1 1/2
(Partitive Division) cans of food. How much food can I give each dog?
Celia painted 15 chairs. For each chair, she used 1/6 of a can of paint.
Multiplication
How much paint did she use?
The fourth grade is making garden plots for the school. They need to
Measurement
put 1/8 of a bag of fertilizer in each garden plot. If they have 2 1/4
Division
bags, how many garden plots can get fertilizer?
Tyrone has 1 1/6 pounds of peaches. He went to the farmers’ market
Addition and bought an additional 2 1/3 pounds of peaches. How many pounds
of peaches does Tyrone have now?
You have hiked 2 1/2 miles on the lake trail. If the whole trail is 5 1/10
Missing Addend miles, how much farther do you need to hike to finish the trail and get
all the way around the lake?
Charlotte and her dad had 4 1/9 pounds of bait for a fishing trip. They
Subtraction
used 1/3 of a pound of bait during the trip. How much bait was left?
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 Other Possibilities

When children understand specific fraction symbols and the amounts represented by the symbols,
they are ready to start engaging in other types of activities with those fractions. These activities help
children develop flexibility with fractions, but children should engage in them only after experience
with these fractions in some of the above types of story problems.

Sample activities for children who understand halves, fourths, and eighths

Choral Counting with fractions 2 2 3/4 3 2/4 4 1/4 5 5 3/4 6 2/4 7 1/4
8 8 3/4 9 2/4 10 1/4 11 11 3/4 12 2/4 13 1/4
14 14 3/4 15 2/4 16 1/4 17 17 3/4

Comparison Which fraction is bigger or are they the same amount?

1/4 vs. 3/4
3/4 vs. 3/8
4/8 vs. 1/2

Solving equations 1
4 −8 = ?
1 1
?× =2
4 4

Placing fractions on a number line Place 3/4 on the number line:

Tip: Show more of the number line

than only 0–1.
0 1 2 3 4 5

To extend fraction instruction beyond foundational understandings, try posing some harder fraction
story problems, including multi-step problems.

The museum store sells fossils by weight. If a full box weighs

Multiplication and division story 12 pounds, how much would 1/3 of a box of fossils weigh?
problems involving a fractional
number of groups I have 3 1/4 cans of paint. If it takes 1/2 of a can of paint to
paint a bookcase, how many bookcases can I paint?

Decimal story problems There are 25 students in Ms. Nguyen’s art class. She is
planning a project where each student will need 0.1 of a jar of
* These problems link to fraction
glitter. How much glitter will Ms. Nguyen need altogether?
problems using 1/10 or 1/100 as
well as children’s place-value A box of paper clips weighs 3.4 pounds. If a paper clip weighs
understanding with whole .01 of a pound, how many paper clips are in the box?
numbers.