Too often students are shown only one image to illustrate the fraction-a pie. This limited visual representation may do little to help students grasp the basic concept of fractions or see how different fractions can be equivalent.
Arrays can be very useful in helping students understand fractions.
This lesson allows students to see how the same fractional array can be manipulated to make different but equivalent fractions. No doubt students have been introduced to the concept of fractions through pie diagrams. This is a good starting point for your discussion. You can do this on the board or with a transparency. The next and most important step is to link these pie representations with arrays.