First Week Task 4

Grade 4GT
First Week Performance Tasks: Who Ate My Cake?  Independent Task

Materials needed

  • Pencil  (for each student) 
  • Who Ate My Cake power point slides    (The picture is clear on the power point and may not be on the copied sheet.)
  • 1 copy of the independent task (for each student)

Task description

This task gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their level of proficiency with the understanding of fractions.  Students will use many operations to solve problems about fractions, as well as their ability to reason abstractly and quantitatively. Students will describe what fractional part of the cake was eaten and how much money that amount would cost.

Task directions

  1. Routine - 10 minutes - Picture It
  1. Problem Solving – individually 20-30 minutes
    • Pass out the Who Ate My Cake? task. Also project this image for the class.
    • Allow students to read it silently as you read it aloud.
    • Ask student what they notice about the task.
    • Ask students what they wonder about the task.
    • Allow students to solve the problem independently.( 20-30 minutes)
    • When students have finished, collect papers.
  1. Debrief the problem- 15 minutes
    • Read the task to the students. Provide them with the answers.
    • Ask the students HOW they solved the problem.
  1. Closure: 10 minutes -Ask students to share the SMPs they demonstrated while solving this problem.

 

Suggested questions  Image

  • Ask students how they arrived at an answer.
  • Ask students to explain what they know so far (especially if they are stuck).
  • Is there another way to represent that answer?
  • Could you solve the problem a different way?
  • Is your answer reasonable? How do you know?

 

Task guidance

Teacher should:

Teacher should avoid:

Anticipated strategies:
  • encourage students to use paper and pencil to model their thinking
  • circulate and observe how students are working on the task
  • circulate among the groups and try to interact with as many different students as possible
  • explain how to complete the task
  • provide any instruction
  • tell a student if their answer is correct or not
  • react in a way that shows if students are correct or not
  • give clues
  • tell students where to start
  • help students with any calculations or point out errors in calculation
  • Students may use a visual representation of the fractions to justify their answers.

 

Task resources

 

Standard

4.NF.3  

Understand a fraction a/b with a > 1 as a sum of fractions 1/b.
A. Understand addition and subtraction of fractions as joining and separating parts referring to the same whole.

  • Decompose a fraction into a sum of fractions with the same denominator in more than one way, recording each decomposition by an equation. Justify decompositions (e.g., by using a visual fraction model). Examples: 3/8 = 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 ; 3/8 = 1/8 + 2/8 ; 2 1/8 = 1 + 1 + 1/8 = 8/8 + 8/8 + 1/8.
  • Add and subtract mixed numbers with like denominators (e.g., by replacing each mixed number with an equivalent fraction, and/or by using properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction).
  • Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole and having like denominators (e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the problem).
    Note: Grade 4 expectations in this domain are limited to fractions with denominators 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 100.