I have been thinking about extending the Fraction Talk love ever since I wrote this initial post in June 2015.  I have used them with my grade nine classes as the starter during units on rational numbers. I have taken the larger questions (such as “What possible fractions can be shaded using this diagram?”) as the prompt for entire lessons of student activity. I have used them to create great conversations with grade 7 and 8 students at our school’s annual math fair. 

I finally found the time (honestly, I found the tech guy… many thanks to Evan Cole) to begin a collection of images and house them in a central location. That location is fractiontalks.com. The site is modelled after other #MTBoS spin-offs like estimation180.com, visual patterns.org, and wodb.ca.  The goal is to create a usable resource for teachers to begin building fraction numeracy with their students. There is also the opportunity for you (or your students) to create and contribute groups of images on the CONTACT/SUBMIT page.  The content is organized into categories based on the type of shape. A brief rationale is provided on a HOW TO… page and the FRACTION TALKS HANDOUT page has a downloadable .pdf recorder sheet for teachers hoping to create a fraction talk routine with students.  As teachers, your feedback is very important to me. I want to make this as usable as possible. You can send feedback via the contact form. 

Enjoy, invent, contribute! NatBanting