Learning to use fractions: Examining middle school students' emerging fraction literacy

This article describes I prevalent practice that a group of 6th- and 7th-grade students engaged in when they used fractions in the context of area and perimeter, decimal operations, similarity, and ratios and proportions. The study's results revealed that students did not simply take the concepts and skills learned in formal fractions units and use them in these other mathematical content areas. Their understanding of how to use fractions was tied to their understanding of situations in which they could be used. Students had to take into account both mathematical and situational contexts when making choices about how to use fractions. This led students to raise questions regarding what was appropriate when using fractions in these new contexts and how fractions and the new contexts were related.