Project 5

Problem:
Liam and Sam shared a chocolate bar. Liam ate 4/12 and Sam ate 3/6. Who ate
more? How much more?
Rubric:
Understands (4-5)
The student recognizes this
as a multi-step problem.
The student changes the
denominators so they are
same.
The student compares the
two fractions to decide
which one is bigger.
The student correctly
subtracts the two fractions
to find their difference.

Missing Ideas (2-3)

The student completes some
of the correct steps, but
doesnt do one or two of
them or they end up with an
incorrect answer.

Doesnt Understand (0-1)

The student may be able to
start, but not complete the
problem.

Interview Questions:
How did you know what to do to solve this problem?
What did you think about first?
Is there another way to solve the problem?
Describe how you know your answer is correct.
Materials:
A half sheet of paper with the problem and space for answering
Pencil
Interview Write-Up
The first interview I conducted was with a ten-year-old student in fifth grade. He
scored a 4 according to my rubric. He is a wonderful student, especially in math. He often
gets done early doing math problems, but fails to check his work for correctness. He
often makes small mistakes to get wrong answers and doesnt always check that his
answer is reasonable. I learned that this student rushes through problems so quickly that
he doesnt always read them all the way through carefully. In this particular problem, he
forgot to state which of the children ate more of the chocolate bar. He went straight to the
part about finding out how much more one of them ate. He wasnt sure about other ways
of solving this problem and he didnt know how to prove that his math was correct. This
reinforces to me that he doesnt fully understand the concepts behind what he is doing
and he isnt quite able to reason his way through problems. To help this student, I think I
need to encourage him to slow down by describing how he is working through a problem;

orally or in writing. I think he would do much better if he would take his time and make
time for checking his work.
The second interview I conducted was with a ten-year-old student in fifth grade.
She scored a 4 on my rubric. works very hard in math, but often needs extra help to
understand basic concepts. She is usually in re-teaching groups and needs more support
than many of the other students. However, she tries really hard and never gives up. I
learned that she needs time to think things through and doesnt always know an answer
on the spot. This may be a reason why she doesnt do well on exit slips because they
arent always given a lot of time to complete them. A low score on an exit slip is
typically why students end up in re-teaching groups. She also wasnt sure why her answer
was correct and she had a hard time reducing the fraction 2/12. I think she should
continue to have extra support in a small group to emphasize basic concepts and to help
her do understand how to do a problem with more ease and confidence.
The final interview I conducted was with a ten-year-old student in fifth grade as
well. He also scored a 4 on my rubric. He does well in math, but also needs some extra
support. He claims that he doesnt understand math, even as he is doing a problem
correctly. I think perhaps he doesnt understand the concept or why hes doing what hes
doing, so he says he doesnt get it. He did well on the problem, but he had to have me
read it to him a couple of times before he knew what to do. He knew that who ate more
meant that he needed to compare, so he cross multiplied. Then he knew that which ever
fraction was bigger needed to be the first number in a subtraction problem. He
understood the basic concepts of the problem, but didnt know if there was more than one
to solve the problem. He said he knew he did the problem correctly because he checked
his answer at the end by working backwards. I think I could help this student by teaching
him strategies for how to understand a story problem by looking for clue words.