ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the use of fraction strips, an inexpensive and highly effective model for comparing fractions, and paves the way for fraction computation. A key feature of these strips is that students must partition them to answer important questions. Fraction strips, such as those available in trade catalogs, are two-dimensional strips, all of the same length. One strip shows halves, the next, thirds, the next, fourths, etc. If a problem is about running distances, for example, the strips can be used as a unit length. All of the strips have the same area, so if the problem is about a rectangular cake, for example, the unit is a unit area. Children also need to work with units that consist of sets of discrete objects, that is, objects that are detached from each other. The measurement ideas and partitioning fraction strips as unit lengths take us into the measure interpretation.
