ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses common mistakes in math instruction and explains the misunderstandings behind them. Jane told her children that they were going to learn fractions, and they were excited. A way to modify Jane's picture so that a fraction may be used to express one or more parts of it is to draw lines that pass through the center of the circle. Jane felt that her children had been given enough background information about fractions and decided to introduce to them the definition of the two key terms involving this concept: denominator and numerator. After Jane had her children represent a fraction using circular cutouts as pizzas, Jane came up with another idea. She gave each child a Hershey's chocolate bar and told them that they were going to use it to represent a fraction. Slashes aren't able to handle a fraction within a fraction, such as 2311 or 2311.
