Home

Services

Math and Instruction

About

proportions

  • Intro to Solving Proportions

    Intro to Solving Proportions

    Solving division equation proportions is challenging for two reasons. First, it involves fractions. Second, for some reason, many students struggle with solving division equations and a proportion is a more complex version. This post outlines a scaffolded handout to guide students through solving by multiplying both sides. Overview The handout provides support in two ways.…

  • Solving Proportions – Scaffolded and Jamboard

    Solving Proportions – Scaffolded and Jamboard

    Below are images from a Jamboard and a handout that scaffold cross multiplying to solve a proportion. (See image at bottom to make a copy of the Jamboard.) This is an entry point, with a focus on how to write the ensuing equation. Solving would be a prerequisite skill so it is not addressed (but…

  • CCSS MATH Coherence Map – 3rd Grade Groups of Objects to HS Slope

    CCSS MATH Coherence Map – 3rd Grade Groups of Objects to HS Slope

    A hidden treasure is the Common Core of State Standards Math Coherence Map. It is an interactive flow chart that shows connections between the various standards. If you are teaching math, you can see the connections between what you are teaching, what was taught previously, and how you are preparing students for their future math…

  • CCSS MATH Coherence Map – 3rd Grade Groups of Objects to HS Slope

    CCSS MATH Coherence Map – 3rd Grade Groups of Objects to HS Slope

    A hidden treasure is the Common Core of State Standards Math Coherence Map. It is an interactive flow chart that shows connections between the various standards. If you are teaching math, you can see the connections between what you are teaching, what was taught previously, and how you are preparing students for their future math…

  • K-12 Math Education is a Line of Dominoes

    Critical dominoes in math education start falling in 6th and 7th grade with the last ones falling in college. If you have a student who struggles with math and is entering or returning to middle school, now is the time to intervene to avoid more serious issues related to math education in the future. If…

  • Making Proportions Meaningful (and Therefore Accessible)

    Making Proportions Meaningful (and Therefore Accessible)

    A student reported to our schools math lab where I reside. He had a handout on proportions shown in the photo below and stated that he didn’t know what to do. I find that in the vast majority of situations like this the student lacks the conceptual understanding of the topic. As is typically the…

  • Analogies: Making Math Meaningful

    Math is an esoteric subject for most people. Good instruction makes information meaningful. One method for making information meaningful is to connect new information to prior experience. In this situation the new information involves determining whether shapes are similar (see photo below). One example of student prior experience with this topic would be shrinking people…

  • Dragon Box for Equations and Proportions

    My 5 year old son using Dragon Box to solve a proportion