A fraction wall is the fastest way to see what a fraction actually is. Every row above is the same length, one whole, cut into a different number of equal pieces: halves, thirds, quarters, and so on down to twentieths. Because the rows are all the same width, the size of a piece tells you the size of the fraction, and you can read comparisons straight off the wall instead of finding common denominators first.

This fractions wall is interactive rather than a static picture. Click pieces to shade them and the wall tells you the fraction you built, simplifies it, and draws a line at that value across every other row. That line is where the wall earns its keep: shade 3/4 and you can see immediately that it lands exactly on 6/8, 9/12, and 15/20, and that it sits to the right of 2/3, so 3/4 is the larger fraction. Rows that match the value you shaded get ringed, so equivalent fractions are picked out for you.

Use it on a board for whole-class questioning, hand it to a student to check an answer they are unsure about, or print it as a reference sheet. If you want a paper copy with nothing shaded, a blank wall for students to label themselves, or a black-and-white version that spares your printer, the printable fraction walls further down the page cover every range from up to 12 through up to 100.