iPad App

The iPad App I chose is called Oh No Fractions. I chose this app because I'm currently in a 5th grade class for my practicum and I know they're struggling with fractions. Since fractions are taught starting in the 3rd grade, and I think I'd like to teach in grades 3-5, I found this app to be very helpful. 

Oh No Fractions is not your typical iPad app game that children will want to play in every minute of their spare time; however, it allows students to practice their knowledge of fractions and allows them to model the fractions given in order to prove which one is greater. The app gives two fractions and allows the student to choose greater than or less than in between the two fractions. There is also a peek option which allows students to model the fraction before they answer greater than or less than. Students are more than welcome to use the Peek option, but the app records how many times the Peek option is used, how many problems the student got correct, incorrect, and how many times the student "proved it". After the question is answered, whether correct or incorrect, the student has the option of proving why the correct answer is in fact correct (by shading in the correct fraction of a model) or to move on to the next question.

What I really like about the app is that it gives students fractions with denominators from 1-20 (depending on the level of difficulty) so they can become comfortable working with fractions other than halves, thirds, and fourths. It's essential for students to have mastered the concept of the size of fractions, greater than, less than, and equal to regarding all sorts of fractions. Unfortunately, sometimes the focus is so much on mastering halves, thirds, and fourths, that students never understand how fifths, sixths, sevenths, eighths, ninths, tenths, etc. work or how they fit on a number line. 

Another great feature of the Oh No Fractions App is that it gives students the opportunity to reduce fractions. The student doesn't actually reduce the fraction themselves, but it gives them the practice of being able to see when fractions can be reduced and when they are in simplest form. The app keeps track of the number of fractions that were successfully reduced and the number of fractions unsuccessfully reduced (the student thought it could be reduced but it was already in simplest form) as well. At the end of the time students have to use the app, the teacher would go around the room and record each student's scores in the form of anecdotal records (a chart with #correct, #incorrect, #of peeks, #of prove its, #successfully reduced, and #unsuccessfully reduced). If there was not time to go around and take these notes at the end of this part of the lesson, there's another option for assessment. If students use the same iPad every time and the iPads are numbered or marked in some way, then the students could put them away at the end of the activity and later the teacher could go through them and take the anecdotal records for each student.

I would use this app as the Engage part of a lesson as a pre-assessment to see what the students already know and what I need to focus on teaching, reteaching, and reviewing. Assuming I had enough iPads available for every student in the class, I would allow each student to explore the app and play the game individually so that they don't feel rushed or like their being judged by their peers. I could put them in pairs but then each student would only get so much time on the app and one student would have to watch their partner as they played the game since they would have nothing to do while the other is playing. I would give them about 10 minutes to explore the app (and I would walk around while they were playing the game to answer questions and observe how the students are doing). At the end of the 10 minutes I think I would call each student (or student pair) to record their scores on an anecdotal record sheet as explained before. As I recorded scores for each student I would notice the things students are having trouble with so that I could focus on those things in the lesson or in the following lesson. Later in the unit I would use the app again in the Elaborate part of the lesson to see how much progress they've made.

In order to decide if the iPad app had a positive impact on the students, I would look at the anecdotal records I collected from each student to see their scores. If the students had a lot of "peeks" and "incorrect's" then I would assume students either didn't understand the concept or that they didn't understand some part of the game. I would have a conference with the small group (or whole group if the majority of students are struggling) and talk to them about the app, if they understood how to play, and if they thought it was helpful in their learning and mastering of fractions in relation to one whole (greater than, less than). In 3rd-5th grade I believe it would be advantageous to have a class meeting discussing the app and the advantages and disadvantages of using the app so that I can receive feedback from the students. Oh no fractions is an educational app and if I'm using the app for pre- and post-assessment then I want to know that the students feel the app is beneficial for them and not a waste of time or too far over their heads. If students have 80% or higher of correct answers and are using the "prove it" to demonstrate their knowledge, then the app has definitely had a positive impact. 

Oh No Fractions is a great iPad app to use as a resource in my future classroom. It's fun and engaging for students because it's a game on an iPad that they get to play. At the same time, it's good practice for students learning the concept of greater than, less than, reducing fractions, and modeling fractions. The feature of the app that allows students to model the fractions is great practice for students proving fractions in relation to one whole and being able to visualize fractions. The app could definitely be used as an educational tool in the mathematics classroom.