Heidi Aranda, center, from education company Math Solutions, holds up a poster detailing a fractional problem featuring cookies divided among students. The example problem was presented to third- and fourth-grade Wood County Schools teachers during a training session Tuesday as part of a district-wide push to improve math scores and give teachers more classroom tools for teaching math lessons. (Photo by Michael Erb)

PARKERSBURG — Wood County Schools teachers are looking at new ways to teach fractions to students.

Third- and fourth-grade teachers gathered Tuesday at the district’s central office in Parkersburg to attend training led by education company Math Solutions.

The training focused on new ways to present and teach the concept of fractions, which forms a basis for upper level mathematics, said John McKown, math and science coordinator for Wood County Schools.

“We realized after talking with teachers at all levels, we needed to work on fractions, McKown said.

For example, one lesson focused on a simple math problem: Dividing cookies among students.

“It’s something students can relate to,” McKown said. “It is sharing a number of cookies with a changing number of students. It grows from a single problem to a more complex problem.”

The district has seen an increase in math scores in recent years, but officials have said they are still too low, with about 32 percent of students testing as proficient or higher on the state assessment exam.

In April, the district’s Curriculum and Instruction Department began working on “trajectory maps,” which show how various math concepts feed into one another. In some areas, lower test scores at a specific grade level could be traced back to lessons which may have been taught years earlier.

“We’ve come to a consensus that the fractional piece was a good starting place,” McKown said. “If it is weak, when it is time to do factoring and algebra, it’s going to cause problems all the way through.”

Tuesday’s training session was one of several recent events designed to give teachers more tools in the classroom, especially in the area of mathematics. The district last week held training sessions at RESA 5. Another Math Solutions training session will be held today at the central office.