MIAA 320 Audio Recording

By Amy Schmerer
Reflection One:
I tried a few different lessons. I started with lessons from my
text. I was pleased with the students discourse but after
reflection, I noticed that the students were basically just
telling me the various ways they found the solution to
problem. I was impressed with the varying ways and that
many were able to explain what they did and why. I feel I did
not ask very cognitively demanding questions. So after
listening to my recording, I decided to try it yet again and to
ask a more essential question that I wrote for our first
assignment in order to increase the cognitive demand and
improve the discourse.
Question One: (Less cognitively demanding)
A classroom has tables that seat a total of 24 students. 4
students are seated at each table. Show me on your
whiteboards how you can figure out many tables are in the
classroom? (Reminder, most students at the beginning of 3rd
grade do NOT know their multiplication facts. We are
building conceptual understanding at this point.)
Tell your partner your strategy for solving each equation.
Results:
One student who has been in Kumon said they just knew 24
divided by four was six.
My other 28 results were:
The students drew tape diagrams, arrays, number bonds,
used counting up by fours. Many wrote repeated addition
sentences, and most wrote the entire fact family, 2 division
equations and 2 multiplication equations.
Question Two: (A more essential question)

Do you think division and multiplication are related? Prove

to me any way you can whether they are or not.
Results:
The students came up with a multitude of ways to prove to
me that division and multiplication are related. No one
chose to prove they were not related. The students were
very engaged in having to prove it. The discourse was great.
They discussed their way and attentively listened to others
ways to prove it. They were agreeing and getting excited
when someone chose a similar way to prove it. It was cool
to watch them also create their own discourse. Examples:
Thats what I think, I did the same thing but with different
numbers.
Some of the further questioning I heard myself ask that I also
thought were of higher cognitive demand, level four:
How does your array help prove to me that division and
multiplication are related?
How do you know that five times six equals thirty?
How is that addition related to multiplication?
The discourse following my questioning did match my
expectations. The evidence is their responses that are in the
audio clip. As stated in my first reflection, I did a second
recording because I was not satisfied that I had asked a
cognitively demanding enough question so the discourse
was pretty low level.
Reflection:
I anticipated the ways students might prove to me that
multiplication and division are related. From that
anticipation and my knowledge of all the strategies we have
used to develop their conceptual knowledge of multiplication
and division I knew what kinds of questions I could ask them

so they could clarify their particular strategy and I could see

whether or not the students had acquired a conceptual
understanding of multiplication and division.
I noticed that I utilized many response strategies. I used
wait time but in my first lesson, I saw that with Megan it
required a very long wait time and I didnt give her enough
before I asked her another prompt I most always use
random calling by pulling cards. I frequently have them stop
and talk to their partner or table group about how they
solved the problem. I asked multiple students to explain
how they solved the problem. I look for, (monitor), students
who use different strategies and purposefully call on (select)
them to share their explanation. I heard myself on tape
using prompts that were in the article you provided us. I
heard:
Can you tell me more?
Why?
How does ______ relate to ______?
Did anyone solve it a different way?
As we wrapped up our discussion, I had the students come to
a conclusion. I asked them to show me a hand signal
whether they agreed or disagreed that multiplication and
division were related (connected) and whether they could
prove it. It was unanimous that they were related and they
could prove it. It was evident to me that they had acquired a
strong conceptual understanding of multiplication and
division and how they are related by their discourse and
work samples. Evidence is in the audio recording.