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We hit a point of disagreement around the decimal standards in my school today. A couple of questions generated a bit of discussion around interpretations of standards:
Are grade 4 students expected to convert from decimal form into fractions? (only decimal to fraction is explicitly included)
Are grade 4 students expected to do arithmetic with decimal fractions (0.73-58/100)?
Are grade 4 students expected to interpret decimal expressions written in words (1 and 57 hundredths of a meter)?
The last question sparked what I’ll politely call a spirited conversation, particularly in light of the NBT progressions, where grade 4 is limited to whole numbers, and grade 5 expands to thousandths.
The standards don’t regard decimals and fractions as different types of numbers between which conversions must be made, but rather as different notations for writing fractions. Note the language of the cluster heading above 4.NF.5: “Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.” Thus, students should see 0.57 as another way of writing the fraction 57/100. I think this means that the answer to all your questions is yes (subject to limits of common sense, of course … you don’t want to get carried away with all the ramifications of understanding decimal notation right away).
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