Fraction Intervention for Fifth Graders Including Worked Examples and Multiple Representations

The current study investigated the effects of an intervention that combined the concrete-representational-abstract integrated sequence with worked problems with errors. Six fifth-grade students receiving tier three interventions within MTSS participated. The students learned fraction equivalence, the operations of addition and subtraction and fraction simplification. The intervention taught these skills with explicit instruction using fraction blocks, number lines, numbers, and symbols. The researchers also presented worked fraction equations with errors that mirrored the students’ error patterns; the students used fraction blocks to explain the error pattern and why it was not reasonable before correctly solving the equation. The researchers used a multiple probe across students single case research design and assessed both maintenance at two and four weeks after instruction. There was a functional relation between the intervention package and students’ computation of equations that included fractions with unlike denominators. The students maintained their skills up to four weeks after intervention.