Jones- Student Work, Week 14

My 3rd grade students had the task of completing the Unit 4 Progress Check because they have a test on Monday. I chose to give them the progress check in class instead of for homework because it would give me  a chance to figure out what they know and what they did not understand. I could answer questions and clear up misconceptions as we reviewed the work together in class instead of letting them fester over night. I have learned that my 3rd graders learn a lot from talking through what they do not understand. They are sometimes able to fix their own misconceptions because they are able to express their thoughts verbally. The Unit 4 Progress Check included multiplication and division word problems, completing fact families and identifying the rule (i.e. Do you multiply or divide by a number to make the number sense true. My students did well with this Progress Check. Below is a sample Unit 4 Progress Check from one of my 3rd graders:

After reviewing my students work, I learned that the current mathematical understanding shows that they understand how to multiply and can solve multiplication word problems. My students current mathematical misconceptions/ misunderstandings are with Division. When I introduced that division is the opposite of multiplication, students assumed that they could multiply numbers to find the answer to a division problems. In some cases that is true but not in all cases.
Future activities that I could have students do to help clear up their mathematical misconceptions would be to have them discuss what it means to multiply and divide. By talking through their understanding of these two concepts I can better understand where my students misconceptions lye. Another activity would have them practice doing division. By practicing division my students will be more comfortable with it and therefore overcome misconceptions.