ABSTRACT

This chapter illustrates how difficult fraction ideas are for most children. The significance of the unit and the fundamental changes that must occur in one's thinking at the beginning of fraction instruction cannot be overestimated. Deciding on the unit in a fraction problem should not be a matter of personal interpretation. In initial fraction instruction, the meaning of fractions derives from the context in which they are used, and each context, either implicitly or explicitly, should define the unit. Unitizing plays an important role in several of the processes needed to understand fractions, especially in sharing and in equivalence. Unitizing, visualization, and fraction equivalence have a symbiotic relationship. As children do this reasoning out loud, they become more comfortable with fractions, they grow more comfortable with visualizing changes, their reasoning improves, and they generate equivalent fraction names without having to follow rules.