Fraction Visuals

Fourth Grade Math, ESL

This lesson helps your students become confident mathematicians when it comes to representing fractions
visually in a variety of ways. Use this lesson as a pre-lesson to Fraction Hunt or teach it independently.

Objectives

Objectives

Academic

Students will be able to identify and write fractions based on things they observe in everyday life.

Language

Students will be able to explain the structure of a fraction and various fraction visual representations with
sentence stems and peer support.

Materials and preparation Vocabulary

Class set of Numerator and Denominator: Basic

Fraction Terms TIER 1
Chart paper
Document camera whole: something that is full or complete
Class set of blank white paper
Teacher copy of Teach Background Knowledge part: one of the pieces that makes or forms
Template something
Teacher copy of Write Student-Facing Language
Objectives Reference
TIER 2

fraction: a part of a whole or any number of equal

parts

TIER 3

numerator: the number in a fraction that is above

the division line and shows how many equal parts of
the whole that you have

denominator: the number in a fraction that is below

the division line and shows the number of equal parts
in the whole

integer: a whole number

Attachments

Numerator and Denominator: Basic Fraction Terms (PDF)

Teach Background Knowledge Template (PDF)
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 Write Student-Facing Language Objectives Reference (PDF)

Math language routine

Stronger and Clearer Each Time.

Introduction (4 minutes)

Explain to students that an integer is a whole number. Ask them what they think the numbers in
between integers are called. Allow students to brainstorm with a partner to activate their background
knowledge. Guide students to discover the concept that there are parts of whole numbers that are called
fractions. Invite students to share what they discussed with their partners and record their ideas on a
piece of chart paper.
Elaborate that fractions are defined as numbers that are not whole numbers or integers. Explain that a
fraction is a part of a whole number. Tell students that the word "part" means the opposite of the word
"whole." Part of something is just some of it but the word whole means all of it. Show examples of the
meaning of "part" vs. "whole" using complete sentences and images (e.g., "I ate part of my sandwich, not
the whole thing," "Part of my family has brown eyes," "Maya has a whole cake, but she wants to share
part of it with her friends.").

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling (7 minutes)

Lead students in an exploration of the variety of types of fractions and different places we see or use
them. First, gather their background knowledge on fractions by facilitating a brain dump of all things
related to the concept.
Display and pose these questions to students: Where or when in your life have you experienced
fractions? How did you know it was a fraction?
Place students into effective partnerships and have them answer the questions with the support of these
sentence stems: "I have seen fractions in ____. I know it is a fraction because ____."
Invite a few students to share their answers.
Tell students that today they will be exploring the structure of a fraction and various ways to draw or
visually represent a fraction. Inform them they will become experts on explaining and describing fractions
because they will practice talking and writing about them multiple times using key mathematical terms.
Tell students that in this lesson they will be supported by sentence starters and peer interaction.
Read aloud this word problem: "Elisa slices a loaf of bread into 10 slices and then she eats 1 slice. How
could you show the fraction of the loaf of bread that Elisa ate?" Model to students how to draw a bar
model, split it into 10 equal parts and color in one part to represent the 1/10 of the loaf that she ate.
Write 1/10 next to the bar model. Explain that you could also represent this fraction in a different way,
such as by drawing 10 rectangles to represent the 10 slices of bread and shade one rectangle. Lastly,
show how you could draw a number line from 0 to 1, with sections of 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc., and circle the
1/10.
Explain that all of these visual representations or drawings of this fraction are valid. Essentially, they
mean the same thing. Tell students that they will explore these ways of drawing and explaining fractions.

Guided Practice (10 minutes)

Hand out the Fraction Terms worksheet to students and display a teacher copy on the document camera.
Tell them that they will go over the structure of a fraction and key terms in the fraction.
Read aloud the teaching box on the top and emphasize the parts of a fraction which include two whole
numbers and a line in the middle. State that the number on top of the line is called the numerator and it
represents the parts being counted. Explain that the number below the line is called the denominator
and it signifies the total parts that make up the whole.
Explain that in this worksheet, they will see a shape that has been divided into equal parts, with some of
the parts shaded or colored in. To the right of the shape, students are to write the numerator and the
denominator to create a fraction that is represented by the drawing.
Call for a student volunteer to be your partner as you model how to orally describe these fractions.
Complete the first two fractions with your partner and use the following sentence stems to describe one
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 of the fractions:
"In this fraction, the numerator is ____ because ____. The denominator is ____ because ____. The
fraction can be read as ____." (e.g., "In this fraction, the numerator is 6 because 6 parts are shaded
in. The denominator is 10 because there are ten total equal parts in the drawing. The fraction can
be read is six-tenths.")
Have students work with their partner to determine the fraction represented by each image and describe
it to their partner.
Review the worksheet as a whole group and call on students to explain their reasoning behind the
answers using the sentence frame above. Confirm or correct students' explanations.

Group work time (12 minutes)

Tell students that they will now practice drawing fractions and talking about each representation 3 times
with different partners.
Place students into groups of 4 and ensure they are sitting near each other. Assign each member of the
group a letter (A, B, C, or D).
Hand out a blank piece of paper to each student and instruct them to fold it into three sections (like a
pamphlet). On the document camera, model to students how you draw the fraction 2/3 in three different
ways (options include bar model, shape model, circle, triangle, square, number line, part of a group).
Note: draw each visual representation in each of the three sections of the divided paper.
Model how you write a description of the drawings using the sentence frames below on the back of the
paper on which you drew the 3 drawings.
"This visual representation shows the fraction ____. I drew ____ and ____ to show ____." (e.g., "This
visual representation shows the fraction 2/3. I drew a number line from 0–1 with 3 equal parts
called 1/3, 2/3, and 3/3 and circled the the 2/3 to show that this fraction is between 0 and 1." OR
"This visual representation shows the fraction two-thirds. I drew three balls and colored two of
them blue to show that 2/3 of the balls are blue.")
"I drew ____. ____ parts out of ____ total parts of ____ can be expressed as ____ (fraction). This
number can be read as ____ (word form)." (e.g., "I drew a circle divided into 3 equal parts and
colored in 2 of the parts. 2 parts out of 3 total parts of the pie can be expressed as 2/3. This
number can be read as two-thirds.")
Assign a fraction for each letter of the group. For example, the A's get 1/4, the B's get 3/5, the C's get
5/6, and the D's get 3/8. Instruct students to draw the same fraction in different ways and write
descriptions of their drawings on the other side of the paper. Remind them to use the sentence frames as
support and to always write in complete sentences.
Have students share all of their drawings and explanations with the three members of their group. For the
first sharing, they are allowed to refer to their written description for support but for the second and third
explanation, they are to only look at the visual representations of the fraction.
Circulate and offer assistance as needed. Listen in to student conversations and observe if they become
stronger and clearer in their explanations by the third time.

Additional EL adaptations

Beginning

Provide bilingual resources such as online dictionaries to help students look up the meaning of any
unknown words.
Give students partially completed visual representation of the fraction assigned to them so that they only
have to finish the drawing.
Place students with sympathetic partners who are able to help them through the drawing and explaining
process.
Provide students with math manipulatives such as fraction strips or pre-made number lines to facilitate
their drawings.

Advanced

Students may write descriptions of their drawings without the support of the sentence frames.
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 Allow students to draw visual representations for a more complex fraction.
Let advanced students be the first to rephrase key points or share their thinking during group work.

Assessment (5 minutes)

On a piece of chart paper or on the board, draw various ways to represent five-sixths. For example, draw
a number line to show 5/6, draw a circle divided into sixths and shade in 5 parts, and also draw 6 objects
(e.g., stars) with 5 objects colored in red. Tip: do not actually write 5/6 or five-sixths until after students
have described what they see.
Tell students to consider the drawings and orally describe what they see by stating to a partner, "I see..."
Discuss their observations as a whole class and guide students to the discovery that even though each
drawing is different, they all represent the same fraction, 5/6.

Review and closing (2 minutes)

Remind students that if they are able to show and explain multiple ways to represent a fraction, their
understanding of fractions and ability to solve more complex problems involving fractions will be
stronger.
Congratulate students on their hard work in today's lesson at practicing their math thinking with
fractions.

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 Fraction Terms
A fraction has a numerator and a denominator.
The numerator is the top number above the bar.
The denominator is the bottom number below the bar.

numerator The number that shows the parts being counted.

denominator The number that shows the total parts as a whole.

numerator numerator

denominator denominator

numerator numerator

denominator denominator

numerator numerator

denominator denominator

numerator numerator

denominator denominator

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 Teach Background Knowledge
Lesson Topic:
Choose a topic from the main content
lesson that will help ELs understand the
main content lesson. Your non-ELs will
already have knowledge about this topic.

Total Lesson Time:

(20 - 30 minutes)

Student-Facing Language
Objective:
Example: I can learn new vocabulary
using pictures and sentence frames.

Student ELP Level(s):

Consider each student’s ELP level and
their academic strengths when choosing
scaffolds for the lesson.

Groupings (pairs, small-groups, a teacher-led group)

Potential Scaffolds: Word banks, word wall, and bilingual glossaries
Choose some of these material supports
Sentence frames, sentence stems, and paragraph frames
and instructional scaffolds based on each
EL’s individual strengths and needs. Home language materials
Reduced linguistic load, repetition, rephrasing and modeling
Practice new academic skills with familiar topics

Materials & Resources List

List the materials you’ll use in the lesson.

Key Vocabulary Words (5-8 words)

List the words with student-friendly
definitions in English. Provide
definitions in student’s home language
when appropriate.

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Introduction
Access EL’s prior knowledge about the
lesson topic with a brief comprehension
check.

Potential activities:
Creating captions for images
Opinionnaires
Carousel brainstorming
Conversations with sentence starters
Time estimate for Introduction
(3 - 5 minutes)

Explicit Instruction of
Background Knowledge
Model a learning activity that embeds
the teaching of academic language and
background knowledge.

Potential activities:
Lunch brunch discussion
Teacher-created, adjusted text and
questions
Brief videos or visuals
Text-based instruction
Home-language connections
Pre-teach a small number of
vocabulary words
Show real-world objects
Complete word family or bilingual
glossaries
Word walls or word bank creation

Time Estimate for Explicit Instruction

(4 - 6 minutes)

Guided Practice
Provide an opportunity for students (in
pairs or small groups) to practice the skill
or information taught during Explicit
Instruction, offering appropriate
scaffolds as needed.

Time Estimate for Guided Practice

(5 - 7 minutes)
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 Formative Assessment
Ask students to show comprehension of
new background knowledge and
associated skills through an oral or
written task. Provide appropriate
scaffolds dependent on their ELP level.

Potential assessments:
Act out concepts
Hands on tasks
Drawings, models, or graphs
Graphic organizer completion
Captions of images
Reading response or content
area logs
Retellings
Role plays
Audio or video recordings
Oral interviews

Time estimate for Assessment

(5 - 7 minutes)

Review and Closing

Refer to the student objective and relate
information to future lessons. Allow
students to share thoughts about
whether they reached their objective
and/or mention lingering questions.
Provide sentence stems or frames for their
discussion.

Time estimate for Review and Closing

(3 - 5 minutes)

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 Write Student-Facing Language Objectives
A student-facing language objective: A teacher-facing language objective:
begins with “I can...” begins with “Students will be able to...”
is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and is designed to raise students' self-awareness of and
promote their language development. promote their language development.
incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and incorporates a language function, grammar structure, and
supports or scaffolds. supports or scaffolds.
is easy to understand for students at all levels of is intended to guide the teacher’s lesson planning
English proficiency. and instruction.

Steps to convert a teacher-facing objective to a student-facing objective:

1. Replace “Students will be able to” with “I can.”
2. Simplify challenging words but maintain key vocabulary words you’ll address in the lesson.

Students will be able to describe a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.
Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

I can talk about a character with adjectives using graphic organizers.

Language Grammar Support/
Function Structure Scaffold

Language Functions Grammar Structures Supports/Scaffolds

locate create identify nouns adverbs graphic organizers sentence starters

show describe infer modals academic vocabulary teacher modeling strategic grouping
sort ask questions interpret verb forms adjectives word banks/walls home language supports
tell brainstorm collect conjunctions phrases
contrast classify compare sentence structure prepositions
pronouns complex sentences
comparatives
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