Task AnalysisConnecting Math and Science through class discussions

Types of Science Tasks

Investigations: Experimental & ObservationalData representation, analysis and

interpretationModelingExplanation

Experimentation

Students are designing, critiquing, and/or carrying out an experimental protocol or research design.

Can be either experiment or observation

What Level?

What Level?

Experimentation

Low level- students following a prescribed procedure and data collection method.

High level- students are given a purpose or problem to solve, but are tasked with using their background knowledge to design a procedure and data collection

method.

Data Representation, Analysis and Interpretation

Students are representing, analyzing, and/or interpreting data

What Level?

What Level?

Modeling

Students are constructing or using models to explain a phenomenon.

What level?

Over the next 30 days, take or draw a picture of the moon from the same point at home. At the end of the 30 days, use the pictures to create a model of the phases of the moon.

What level?

Students use hydrogeology models to determine how much water runs off various surfaces when 1000 mL of water is poured over the model.

Explanation

Students are providing explanations for patterns or phenomena.

Cognitive Demand…students who performed best on a project assessment designed to measure thinking and reasoning processes were more often in classrooms in which tasks were enacted at high levels of cognitive demand (Stein and Lane 1996), that is, classrooms characterized by sustained engagement of students in active inquiry and sense making (Stein, Grover, and Henningsen 1996). For students in these classrooms, having the opportunity to work on challenging mathematical tasks in a supportive classroom environment translated into substantial learning gains.

---Stein & Smith, 2010

What types of thinking must children be able to do to be proficient on the new standards?

VDOE Examples

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Cognitive Demand

Why do we focus on the cognitive demand of the task?Tools:

Task Analysis Guide (TAG)Bloom’s TaxonomyWebb’s Depth of Knowledge

Recall

Concepts & Skills

Strategic Thinking

ExtendedThinking

Same Verb, Different DOK

DOK 1- Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. (Requires simple recall)

DOK 2- Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. (Requires cognitive processing to determine the differences in the two rock types)

DOK 3- Describe a model that you might use to represent the relationships that exist within the rock cycle. (Requires deep understanding of rock cycle and a determination of how best to represent it)

Depth of Knowledge

Level 1- Identify the utensilsLevel 2- Explain the functions of the forkLevel 3- Identify two examples of when a fork would not be the best utensil for a type of food and whyLevel 4- Design an investigation to determine the optimal number and length of tines for a salad fork.

Determining cognitive level

Curriculum Framework!

Planning Task Analysis

1. Do the task2. Predict solution methods3. Predict misconceptions/interventions4. Plan essential questions

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Curriculum Framework

Recall

Concepts & Skills

Strategic Thinking

ExtendedThinking

Cognitive Demand

Task Implementation

Focus: Student Reasoning through Classroom DiscourseFormative Feedback

Which questions to ask?How to keep the

cognitive demand up?

How are you preparing them for the new challenges our global economy creates?

How can we leverage technology as a formative assessment tool to open discussions and learn from everyone’s point of view?

How can we make student voices audible and student thinking visible?

Feedback: Use Evidence of Student Thinking

Set PurposeGive feedback on student work

(self, peer and teacher)Use holistic and task specific rubricsWhat does the student understand?Misconceptions?What is the next step for that student?What is the next question?

SELF ASSESS

Things to remember...

To effectively use discourse to deepen student learning:

The task must be of high cognitive demandStudents must have multiple ways to engage

and complete the taskStudents must produce artifacts the make

their learning visible (written texts, drawings, data representations, etc)