MERLOT site

Visual Fractions Website

MERLOT 

I thought the site Visual Fractions suggested by Richard Rand on MERLOT would be very effective for my fifth graders.  After playing on the site for a few minutes, that was all the time I needed to discover its validity.  The quality of the content was valid and correct and it had useful fraction models for students to be able to visualize the content.  This website can be used for identifying, comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.  Along with instructional models, it had interactive lessons attached as well.  I think the website would appeal to students.

After students use this site, they should have a better knowledge of  the meaning of fractions.  The target learners for this great website would be the visual learners who need topics reinforced that were learned in class.  This site hit a variety of stages as a teaching and learning tool.  It gave visual explanations of fractions.  For example, if you started playing a fraction game to compare fractions and forgot how to do it, you could click explain and it would provide a visual explanation.  The downfall would be that this site did not have a lot of application to new problems though.  Although this site could be used for a teacher to refresh their knowledge of drawing pictures to visual fractions, I think that it would be most beneficial for struggling learners.

The website is a very user-friendly site.  As I was searching through the site, I did not get easily lost.  When you go to the link, the home page consisted of a heading.  If you wanted to compare fractions, you clicked the compare button.  Next, you would click the learning tool to either compare with lines or to compare with circles.  Once you do that, you are learning.  It is as easy as that to get started.  Students would be able to work through this site with little teacher guidance.