I’m exploring making a different kind of instructional video right now, to help motivate some rich and interesting approaches to skills practice for all the kids now at home.

Here’s the idea: rather than watch a video on how to subtract fractions, followed by a page (or website) of exercises, what if there were an interesting challenge that would motivate you to want to learn about how to subtract fractions? Then the video could connect the skill and the challenge, and everyone would be more motivated to learn it.

That’s the theory, anyway. Doing it this way over video is a bit of an experiment. There’s a fair amount of finesse that I can employ in person in a classroom. But I’m hoping this will help!

Please comment to let me know if this format works.

I’d recommend starting with just the PDF of the question. If that’s too hard, that’s okay –  I’ve got a video explanation below that. Actually learning to subtract fractions in a meaningful way and getting a bunch of practice is the main goal. But there’s a fascinating question to motivate it, and making predictions and conjectures as you and your kids notice patterns make the experience richer.