Growing confident through language

Student story

Rosy Wilkinson
Christies Beach Primary School
Noarlunga Cluster

Millie, a year 5 student, used to appear shy and was reluctant to ask questions when she didn’t understand a task or concept. She is now very confident in asking for help or in answering questions and is always eager to share her thinking and successes in mathematics. This is a transcript showing Millie’s understanding and use of technical language at the end of a task that introduced adding fractions with common denominators.

Teacher:  Tell me about the 5 halves.
Millie:  5 halves is an improper fraction.
Teacher:  How do you know that 5 halves is an improper fraction?
Millie:  Well, it’s not a usual fraction.
Teacher:  How do we know it’s improper?
Millie:  Because…the numerator is higher than the denominator.
Teacher:  What have you changed your improper fraction into?
Millie:  I turned it into a mixed number.
Teacher:  What’s your mixed number?
Millie:  2 wholes and 1 half.
Teacher:  That’s right 2 and a half.