Learning Fractions by Breaking Bread!
Every time we have a Teacher Collective session, we are almost always sure that some magic is going to spill in one of the classrooms soon after! This time around, the teacher-turned-magician was from Primary Government School Hasanpur, Mussoorie. She decided to explain the concept of fractions to her young students of grade 3 in a way where fractions would be related to their real life.
Instead of taking the regular route, where the teacher explains the concept and the students listen, she decided to ask them a puzzle. The students responded with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm.
Learning Fraction Through Rotis!
The teacher wanted to start off with something that the children could easily relate to. So, the first question she asked them was,
“If you have one roti (bread) in your hand and your younger brother is hungry, what will you do?”
Amazingly, most students raised their hands up, eagerly waiting to answer. Every student who raised their hand opted to make two divisions of the roti. It was great to see students relating their classroom learning to their existing knowledge from home.
Now the teacher thought to twist the question a little. The next question she asked was,
“If you have 1 roti (bread) and 3 more siblings who are starving, how many portions will you make now?”
Instantly, the answer 4 popped up! This way a simple “roti and sibling” example enabled the students in learning the concept of dividing a whole into parts, all by themselves!
Learning Fractions On The Floor
For the teacher facilitating the class, this was really motivating. She then divided the class into different learner groups and asked each group to divide one whole box into thirteen parts. To her surprise, every group was deeply engaged in the problem and was trying to come up with their own ingenious solution. No longer it was a math class with only one right answer. This helped in removing children’s fear and each one participated fully in their own group.
As the class progressed, the students looked a little worried of scribbling away in their notebooks. The teacher sensed that the students were hesitant about finishing their notebooks for these practice exercises. So she asked them to do these calculations on the floor with the help of chalk and duster.
It was like freedom to experiment had taken over the classroom’s environment! Every student started solving the questions given to them with much more ease. They were writing, rubbing, rechecking, and resolving without any resistance!
We were inspired by the teacher’s observation and solution to the problem. The inquiry around the concept of the fraction was hence explored with full enthusiasm by the students.
The Confident Teacher And Her Curious Students
On the outside, it looks like a simple teaching experiment but on the inside, it is way more than that. This method gave confidence to the teacher and wings to the students, which is what every classroom should ideally look like right?
What happened after this class was that the same teacher used the same interactive strategy for a completely different topic, which was “Table of 2”, in a much younger grade this time! She shared with us that when her students responded well to her questions and her newly devised teaching methodology. It made her feel content with her own effort. Using a self-modified method for a different grade was indeed an aha moment for us as well!
We were happy to see the teacher feel value in her work. We witnessed students feeling excited to learn. This two-way street made learning and teaching both look so natural and fun! We, at Tarkeybein, hope to witness many such engaging learning sessions in the future and be of support wherever required!
If you resonate with our work, want to implement this model in your community, want to support this initiative, or just want to drop in some encouraging words, we invite you to write to us at tarkeybein@gmail.com :)
