MIAA 320: Cognitive Demand

By Amy Schmerer

Overall Reflection: It appears our curriculum has mostly

level 1, 2, and some level 3 cognitively demanding questions
while presented in a more visually appearing difficulty. I
struggled to find, at the 3rd grade level, more cognitively
demanding level 4 questioning. I wasnt sure if I was
struggling because the math at my grade level is, thank god,
at a lower level than my ability that I couldnt weed through
what would be at the assignments required level 3 & 4
based on a third grade mind and skill set, or whether I lack
the experience and exposure to higher demanding
questioning. I question this because I know from
experiencing the prerequisite math assessment that
questions that I had to do level four work on due to my skill
set, for others was at a lower cognitive demand. There were
quite a few explain your thinking so is that all it requires
for 8 year olds to be at a high cognitive demand? I know the
students struggle with that at this point. Especially since not
having had much exposure in K-2 with our former state
standards. I can only hope I was successful at this. I found
it challenging to formulate higher cognitively demanding
questions based on what we are currently working on and
its the beginning of the year with a new curriculum. The
topic of multiplication, as all topics, is to be introduced
conceptually but ideally becomes rote. It ultimately appears
to me that the level of questioning depends on the
experience and knowledge of the individual.
Topic One: Properties of Multiplication and Division
and Solving Problems with Units of 2-5 and 10
Level One: Memorization Tasks
Reflection: These were the easiest and most prevalent level
of problems in the math module. I chose these because
they are both simple computation problems that students

have previously learned and are required to complete on a

timed test.
1. Sprints example: 2x1=

, 2x2=

, 2x3=

2. Sprint example: 7+7= ______ , 2 sevens=______

Level Two: Procedures Without Connections Tasks
Reflection: I chose these problems because the students
were given a model to use to solve the problems and they
were required to interpret the model in a variety of ways
using more simple computation.
1. Fill in the blanks to make true statements.
(Picture of 3 hands)
3 groups of 5=________
3 fives=_________
3x5=_________
2. Dan organizes his stickers into 3 rows of four. Irene adds
2 more rows of stickers. Complete the equations to describe
the total number of stickers in the array.
(Picture of 5 rows of 4 stars with 3 rows white and 2 rows
shaded)
a. (4+4+4)+(4+4)=__________
b. 3 fours+________ fours=_________ fours
c. ________ x 4= _________
Level Three: Procedures With Connections Tasks
Reflection: I chose these because students must use what
they have learned and expand on it. They are not simple
computation problems. They have to make decisions on
which operations to use and be able to illustrate and explain.

1. Mrs. Tran picks 15 tomatoes from her garden. She puts 5

tomatoes
in each bag. Explain how you can find
out how many bags she needed.
2. Franklin collects stickers. He organizes his stickers in 5
rows of four.
a. Draw an array to represent Franklins stickers.
b. Write an equation to find Franklins total number of
stickers
c. Franklin had 5 rows of four stickers. He added 2
more rows.
d. Write and solve an equation to represent what you
added
to the array.
Level Four: Doing Math
Reflection: I chose these problems because they require the
students to interpret whats given and figure out how to
prove their answers. I also saw that when the first problem
was given that students struggled. They were not used to
having to think and make connections in the prior
curriculum. They need a true understanding of the concepts
in order to complete these problems successfully.
1. Mrs. Tran figured out how many flowers she planted. Her
work is shown below. Would Mrs. Tran get the same result if
she multiplied 5x4? Explain why or why not.
(3x4)+(2x4)=12+8=20
2. Explain how you can use addition to solve multiplication
problems.