Transforming lives through learning Scottish Survey of Literacy & Numeracy Support Material Third Level - Fractions, decimal fractions and percentages Classroom version Produced by Education Scotland Transforming lives through learning

Introduction Fractions, decimal fractions & percentages Knowing which one to use ?

Demonstrating a deep understanding ÷ 4

Reflect on other examples where pupils need to decide on the most appropriate form to use. ÷ 8 Taking into account that 0.5 =

Strategy Changing 0.5 to might help answer 9.5 x 0.5 This changes the questions to 9.5 x Do pupils recognise that 9.5 is the same as 9.50? Pupils then need to realise that this is the same as asking ‘How much is of 9.5’ So, all that is required is dividing 9.50 by 2

Strategies Double it So £4.50 is worth $ $0.79 = $7.11 Direct proportion can also be a really useful approach for percentage calculations it

Step by step approach Pupils should be encouraged to look for the simplest calculations. Finding 10% and 1% is generally something which pupils find straightforward.. This combination allow us to calculate any percentage. ÷ 2 ÷ 10

½ it Double it In a local election, 17% of voters voted for the Green Party people voted in the election. How many voted for the Green Party? So 4760 people voted for the Green Party.

Investigate How can you apply your knowledge of the above to calculate the following percentages?

Misconceptions of the link between fractions & ratio This needs to be investigated. or

Link between ratio & fractions Shaded : Not shaded 1: 3 Shade of the circles 4 = 1 + 3

The ratio is Carol : James 3 : 2 Think of this as 3 for Carol and 2 for James, and shade the rectangle accordingly until it is completely coloured in. Let’s make Carol’s share red and James’s share yellow: So, Carol has 9 squared coloured and James has 6. So, Carol gets 9 crayons and James gets 6 crayons. Link between ratio & fractions

What numerical strategies developed for working with fractions could we use to solve this ratio problem? The ratio is 3:2, meaning Carol gets 3 shares and James gets 2 shares, giving 5 in total. This means that Carol gets of the crayons and James gets of them. Use skills developed in finding a fraction of an amount to find that of the 15 crayons is 3 crayons Carol gets, so she gets 3 lots of 3, which is 9James gets, so he gets 2 lots of 3, which is 6. How could pupils check their answer? Link between ratio & fractions