Mastering Fraction Addition with Unlike Denominators

Math with Mr. J

This video serves as a "Mastery Check" for 5th-grade students learning to add fractions with unlike denominators. Hosted by "Mr. J," the video follows an interactive format where students are presented with four practice problems and encouraged to pause the video to solve them independently before watching the step-by-step solutions. The content covers finding common denominators, renaming fractions to equivalent forms, adding numerators while keeping denominators constant, and checking if the final answer needs simplification. The problems range in difficulty, starting with simple multiples (5 and 10) and progressing to pairs requiring more thought to find the Least Common Multiple (like 9 and 12, or 20 and 8). Teachers can use this video as a formative assessment tool, a mid-lesson check for understanding, or a self-paced review station. It encourages self-regulation and error analysis, as students get immediate feedback on their work by comparing their process with the instructor's detailed walkthrough on the chalkboard.