# Authoring Questions — Fractions G3–G8

Open questions for SME review.

## Granularity calls (R-LO-6) made during authoring

These are decisions where the forcing question ("would a teacher say 'student is weak on parent skill' or 'weak on a specific sub-case'?") was a judgement call. Flagging in case SME wants to revisit.

1. **G3 halves, quarters, three-quarters — split as N LOs in the `recognise-fraction-of-whole` family.** Decision: 3 separate LOs (`-half`, `-quarter`, `-three-quarters`). Rationale: NCERT G3 explicitly treats each as a distinct teaching unit with its own "Let us Do" block; a G3 teacher would credibly say "the student can recognise halves but not yet quarters". If SME prefers one LO with `cases: ["half", "quarter", "three-quarters"]`, this can be collapsed.

2. **G6 ordering ascending vs descending — split as 2 LOs in separate families.** NCERT explicitly poses both "Figure it Out 2 — ascending" and "Figure it Out 3 — descending" as separate exercises. Authored as `order-fractions-ascending` and `order-fractions-descending` joined by `inverse_of`. If SME prefers a single `order-fractions` family with two scope-suffixes, that is a one-line edit.

3. **G6 same-denominator vs unlike-denominator addition/subtraction.** Authored as separate LOs in the same family (`compute-fraction-sum` with `-same-denominator` and `-unlike-denominator` suffixes; same for difference). NCERT teaches them in distinct sub-sections and the method is different. Decision matches AUTHORING_PROMPT.md Example 2.

4. **G5 vs G6 number-line marking.** Both grades teach this, with G6 broader (improper fractions, larger denominators). Authored as two LOs in the same `mark-fraction-on-number-line` family joined by `prerequisite_of` + `scope_extends`. The G5 LO has no scope-suffix (the canonical id), the G6 LO has `-extended`. If SME prefers a different naming convention for cross-grade scope extension (e.g., `-g5-range` / `-g6-range`), worth a re-pass.

5. **G6 reading vs marking a fraction on the number line.** Authored as separate LOs (`mark-fraction-on-number-line-extended` and `read-fraction-from-number-line`) joined by `inverse_of`. NCERT teaches both — the bidirectional skill is asymmetric enough (marking is generative; reading is interpretive) that a teacher might assess them separately.

6. **G4 `compute-fraction-of-set`.** Treated as a single LO covering 1/n of N objects (e.g., 1/4 of 12 = 3). NCERT G4 doesn't yet extend to non-unit fractions of a set (k/n of N). If SME wants `compute-fraction-of-set-unit` and `compute-fraction-of-set-non-unit` separately for forward-compatibility with G5/G6, please flag.

## Scope / boundary

7. **G7 multiplication is split into three LOs: whole×fraction, fraction×fraction, fraction-product-simplified.** The "simplifying by cancelling" LO is technically the same computation as `compute-product-of-two-fractions` just with a method optimisation. Justification for authoring it as a separate LO: NCERT spends a full sub-section on cancellation as a named technique (apavartana, attributed to Umasvati c. 150 CE), and a teacher might separately assess whether a student spontaneously cancels before multiplying. If SME considers this redundant, the simplifying LO can be merged into `compute-product-of-two-fractions` with cancellation as a scope feature.

8. **G7 word-problem LO is a single catch-all.** `solve-multi-step-fraction-word-problem` is intentionally broad. NCERT has many examples (Leena's tea, Baudhāyana's bricks, Pṛithūdakasvāmī's cistern, Bhāskara II's dramma puzzle, Mira's pages) — all are operationally similar (model the situation, apply the appropriate fraction operation). If SME wants finer splits (e.g., by operation: word-problem-multiplication, word-problem-division), please flag.

## Naming

9. **`-extended` suffix.** Used twice (G6 number-line marking, G6 mixed-conversion, G6 equivalent-fractions). It's an honest disambiguator but doesn't follow the "named sub-case" or "method" suffix patterns from §5.2 of the authoring contract — it's purely a "broader-scope" marker. If SME has a stricter preference (e.g., `-broad-range`, `-deepened`), I'll rename. The alternative — putting all the scope variation on one LO and dropping the G5 version — loses important grade granularity.

## Cross-thread targets

10. **Cross-thread edges point to LO ids in threads that don't exist yet.** Per the run brief, all 7 cross-thread edges have `status: "proposed_pending_human_review"`. The target ids (`cbse-math-divide-whole-numbers-equal-sharing`, `cbse-math-find-common-factor-of-two-numbers`, `cbse-math-compute-lcm-of-two-numbers`, `cbse-math-compute-product-of-two-whole-numbers`, `cbse-math-compute-area-of-rectangle-whole-sides`, `cbse-math-convert-fraction-to-decimal`, `cbse-math-extend-fraction-arithmetic-to-rational-numbers`) are my best guesses at the future naming. SME should sanity-check these before any of the cross-thread targets are authored — if a target id ends up differently named, the edge will need updating.

## G8 thread boundary

11. **G8 chapter scope was deliberately trimmed.** "Fractions in Disguise" in NCERT runs from percentages → percentage-of-quantity → percentage increase/decrease → profit/loss → discount → GST → simple/compound interest. I authored only the first two sub-topics into the fractions thread. The rest is logged in `coverage_gaps.md`. SME may want to either (a) confirm the boundary is correct, or (b) confirm those topics will be authored into a separate commercial-math thread.