Reply To: CONTENT/DEPTH Question: Grade 5 Decimal Division

[Kyle Pearce]

@Jennifer-Corforte

This is an extremely interesting question!
I had to go and look up the specific Grade 5 Common Core standard to make sure and I’ll paste it here for everyone else to read as well:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.5.NBT.B.7
Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.

Something that I’m wondering first, before we get to how in-depth or specific we need to get with dividing decimals, is:

How well do the students understand the two types of division (partitive and quotative)?

How well do the students understand dividing fractions?

To me, both of these ideas must be very solid prior to diving into operations with decimals since a decimal is an abstract (and very constrained) version of a fraction.