Reply To: Lesson 2 – Building A Continuum Of Measurement – Discussion

[John Sasko]

I will compare four-sixths and five-eighths. (based on same whole!)

Direct comparison – place the fraction strips or cuisenaire rods representing each on top of each other and visualize which is more/greater/longer.

Indirect comparison – I might use a one-half strip or cuisenaire rod and compare each one to the one-half piece.

Indirect measurement – create equivalent fractions for each one.

Thinking about where on continuum this reasoning would be: compare each mentally to benchmark of one-half. Four-sixths is one-sixth more than three-sixths (or one-half). Five-eighths is one-eighth more than four-eighths (or one-half). Therefore, four-sixths is larger because the one-sixth more than one-half is larger than one-eighth more than one-half because one-sixth is longer than one-eighth (of same whole). Is this indirect comparison because I am using the benchmark one-half to do this reasoning?