Foundations of Multiplication and Division Mini-Assessment

Author: Student Achievement Partners

  • Description
  • Files

This mini-assessment is designed to illustrate assessment of early progress in the 3.OA domain. This mini-assessment is designed for teachers to use either in the classroom, for self-learning, or in professional development settings to:

  • Evaluate students' understanding of aspects of 3.OA addressed early in the learning of multiplication and division in order to prepare to teach this material or to check for student understanding, and to check for student progress toward fluency;
  • Gain knowledge about assessing some of the conceptual understanding, procedural skills, fluencies, and applications of multiplication and division; and
  • Illustrate CCSS-aligned assessment problems.

  • Making the Shifts

    How does this mini-assessment exemplify the instructional Shifts required by CCSSM?

    Focus Belongs to the major work of third grade
    Coherence Sets the stage for future work toward deep understandings of multiplication and division of larger numbers, fractions, and decimals
    Rigor

    This mini-assessment touches on all three aspects of rigor: conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application.
  • Noteworthy features of this resource
    • Mathematically:
      • Requires students to analyze a situation and make a conjecture, which then must be supported by evidence (MP.3)
      • Illustrates grade-appropriate modeling (MP.4), requiring students to decide which operations apply, to create equations that represent context, and to use visual models to abstract the mathematical elements of the situation
      • Builds toward fluency with single-digit factors (which is expected by year's end)
    • As a mini-assessment:
      • Serves as a summative assessment for a model instructional unit being developed in outline by Student Achievement Partners
      • Uses a mix of brief checks of key concepts and problems that require students to share their mathematical reasoning
      • Incorporates a range of complexity, ensuring all students are able to answer some questions or parts of some questions to demonstrate what they know and are able to do

Supplemental Resources