Lesson 9

The purpose of this lesson is for students to determine if two fractions are equivalent, and if they are, explain why they are equivalent.

In earlier lessons, students developed their ability to use different representations and strategies to reason about equivalence and generate equivalent fractions. This lesson enables them to consolidate the work so far and communicate their understanding conceptually, before they move on to reason about equivalent fractions numerically in the next lesson.

Students work with some fractions in the hundredths. Although students might try to partition a number line into 100 parts, they are not expected to do so. The idea is to motivate students to look for another way—one that is less tedious and more general—to generate equivalent fractions. 

• Each group needs 4 sticky notes. 

This lesson centers on explanations for equivalence. What representations and strategies did most students rely on to justify equivalence? What aspects of the explanation was manageable for them? What was more challenging than anticipated?