3rd-Grade Math Assignment

Focus
This assignment is well-aligned with both target third-grade standards:

• 3.OA.A.2 requires students to interpret quotients in two scenarios and the assignment includes both. In problem 1, students find the unknown group size, and in problem 2, they find the unknown number of groups. 
   
• 3.OA.A.3 requires students to solve division problems in the context of word problems, and the assignment includes two word problems about putting markers in boxes. The numbers used (dividing 18 by 6 and 3) are also appropriate because third-graders should be working on dividing whole numbers within 100. 

Rigor
This assignment allows for two aspects of rigor outlined in the target standards: conceptual understanding and application. Third grade is the first year that students begin studying multiplication and division in earnest, and a huge focus of third grade math instruction is developing students' conceptual understanding of these operations so that they’re able to tackle more advanced work with multiplication and division in future grades. For example, students must understand that division represents splitting a set of objects into equal groups and division problems can require either finding the unknown number of groups or the unknown group size. Asking students to interpret and explain what is happening in the two scenarios in the assignment gives them a chance to build that conceptual understanding. The word problem format also allows students to apply that mathematical understanding to a real-world situation. 

Practice Standards
This assignment allows students to engage with multiple mathematical practice standards. Interpreting what is happening in both scenarios gives students the chance to engage with Mathematical Practice Standard #1 ("Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them"). Representing the real-world topic (number of markers in boxes) mathematically with drawings gives students the chance to engage with Mathematical Practice Standard #4 ("Model with mathematics"). Asking students to explain how the two scenarios are similar and different gives students the chance to engage with Mathematical Practice Standard #3 (“Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others”).