Adapting math activities is one of my favorite parts of lesson planning. I love it so much because of the thoughtfulness, curiosity, and creativity involved in even the smallest of changes. In making any change, I have to think about what students know, the math of the activity, how the activity addresses the learning goal, ways students might engage in the activity, and questions to ask students along the way.

Fraction Activity

In this 4th grade activity, students were writing equivalent multiplication equations for a fraction multiplied by a whole number and then discussing the relationship between the different equations. The curriculum activity was good and definitely addressed the learning goal, but there was definitely an opportunity to open it up for more student reasoning and ownership. For example, in its current form, students don’t have the chance to think about which whole numbers would work in their equations or play around with the properties.

Small Change

Adapting doesn’t always require huge lifts. For this activity, all we decided to do was change the prompt to 12/5 = ____ x _____ and ask them to find as many ways as they could to make the equation true. I got so wrapped up in their work and discussions, that I didn’t snag any pictures of that part of the lesson, but after they finished we pulled up polypad and asked them how we could show why they are are all equivalent using the fraction bars. We wanted to be sure they just weren’t proceduralizing it at this point of the unit, so pulling up the fraction bars felt like a nice grounding of the concept. The board looked like this before we erased to make space to circle the other expressions.

Making Connections

At this point, they couldn’t get enough and asked for another fraction to try, so we gave them 16/3. We saw so much great thinking and use of the commutative property when finding the whole number and numerator.

Their excitement alone was the first indicator that allowing more space for their choices was a great idea! And then, as I was walked around, a couple students asked if they could write division equations. Of course I said yes and walked away.

I came back to #7 and #8 on this board:

When I asked how she came up with those equations, she said she used her multiplication equations because multiplication and division are related. I left her with the question of how she might show that division on the fraction bars and class wrapped up. I can’t wait to check back in with her tomorrow to see what she came up with!

Next time you plan a math lesson, I encourage you to think about small tweaks you can make to open it up for more student voice, ownership, and opportunities to think big! And I don’t know if anyone is even talking much about math planning on Twitter (X) anymore, but if you are, I would love to think together about tweaking math activities. So, send some activity pics my way @MathMinds and we can flex our curiosity and creativity muscles in planning together.

-Kristin