From: Dorcas Wong
To: Teacher2Teacher Service
Date: Apr 18, 1998 at 10:30:36
Subject: Teaching dividing fractions

I'm a grade 7 teacher of Gifted students in Toronto. We've recently been
working on fractions and we were learning to divide and multiply fractions.  
Although we know the "method" I am always trying to have the students 
understand the concepts and see where the "method" is derived.

When we came to explaining dividing fractions, I could not draw diagrams or
explain why we multiply by the reciprocal of the divisor. I've read several
different math textbooks but am still unable to explain the logic. I think
part of the problem is that I don't clearly understand the concept behind the
difference between multiplying and dividing fractions.

I'm wondering if you could give me some tips as well as some suggestions on
how I can explain these concept to my class.

Thanks,
Dorcas

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