Name: ______Date: ______
4.MD.4
Jasmine volunteers at an animal shelter. One of her jobsis weighing the kittens and keeping track of their weights. When Jasmine visited the shelter today, she weighed the kittens and made the line plot below to show the weights of the sixteen kittens.
When Jasmine got home, she
realized she forgot to write the
numbers on the scale below
the lineplot. She remembered,
though, that the smallest kitten
weighed 3 pounds and that
four of thekittens weighed
pounds.
Fill in the blanks to complete
the scale of the line plot.
Explain how you figured out what numbers to place on the scale of the line plot.
______
______
______
Two of the kittens that Jasmine
weighed, Butterscotch and Cocoa,
are brothers, but they don’t weigh
the same amount. Together, the
two kittens weigh 9 pounds. What ______pounds ______pounds
could the kittens’ weights be? Butterscotch’s weight Cocoa’s weight
Milkshake and Oreo are the heaviest kittens that Jasmine
weighed Last week, Milkshake weighed pounds less
than he did today. What was Milkshake’s weight last week? ______pounds
Elementary Mathematics Office • Howard County Public School System • 2013-2014
Teacher notes:• Students may need to do calculations on paper, either to solve or to check their work. Encourage the students to use any space on the paper to show their thinking. Some students may require more space than the paper provides or may need lined paper to structure their work. You may choose to give those students, or all students, extra paper on which they can do their calculations.
• The students should complete the scale so that the smallest weight is 3 and the scale uses an interval of ¼ pounds. Since there is already a label beneath the blanks for the scale, the students do not have the label each number they add to the scale. For the explanation, students should describe how they used the clues and their knowledge of fractions to place the missing numbers on the scale. The level of specifics in the answers can help distinguish “substantial” from “full” accomplishment.
• For the first follow-up question, the only possible weights are 4 ¼ lbs and 4 ¾ lbs. The question does not specify which is heavier, so the weights chosen can be in any order.
• For the second follow-up question, the answer is 3 ¾ lbs.
• It would be beneficial to have a post-scoring review discussion of this task with your class. One focus could be how the students reasoned through the placement of numbers on the scale. Students may have had different methods of determining the missing values, and the sharing may be useful to students who had trouble with this part. The discussion would also be a chance for students to share their answers and reasoning for the follow-up questions, particularly the final one. Students who had trouble with this (a common incorrect answer would be 4 ¾ lbs) could benefit from hearing strategies for correctly solving a problem such as this one that requires “crossing over” a whole, including how to use the line plot itself as a number line, counting down from 5 lbs to 3 ¾ lbs.
Not yet: Student shows evidence of misunderstanding, incorrect concept or procedure. / Got It: Student essentially understands the target concept.
0 Unsatisfactory:
Little Accomplishment
The task is attempted and some mathematical effort is made. There may be fragments of accomplishment but little or no success. Further teaching is required. / 1 Marginal:
Partial Accomplishment
Part of the task is accomplished, but there is lack of evidence of understanding or evidence of not understanding. Further teaching is required. / 2 Proficient:
Substantial Accomplishment
Student could work to full accomplishment with minimal feedback from teacher. Errors are minor. Teacher is confident that understanding is adequate to accomplish the objective with minimal assistance. / 3 Excellent:
Full Accomplishment
Strategy and execution meet the content, process, and qualitative demands of the task or concept. Student can communicate ideas. May have minor errors that do not impact the mathematics.
Adapted from Van de Walle, J. (2004) Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. Boston: Pearson Education, 65
Elementary Mathematics Office • Howard County Public School System • 2013-2014