Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660

Names have been altered

Student A: Olivia
Grade/Year: 3
Date Interviewed: 26/3/14
Note: Attach the original record sheets from your interview of each
student to the back of the hard copy you submit to the Faculty of
Education dropbox. Keep a photocopy for yourself as backup.
1. Growth Point Table
Domain Assigned Growth Point
Counting 2
Place Value 3
Addition and Subtraction 2
Multiplication and Division 2

Who checked your growth point judgements?

Students name: Date:

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
2. Nutshell Statement (Maximum 150 words)
Olivia has a sense of place value with two digit numbers and is thus able to read and order

numbers beyond 1000, and able to interpret three digit numbers. She also shows an

understanding of number conservation and cardinality, trusting her counting whilst solving

problems. Whilst capable of counting on, Olivia struggles to count back which appears to

hinder her in solving subtraction problems. She struggles with subtraction facts, even when

using her fingers to model. Olivia models multiplication strategies as she thinks in terms of

equal groups to solve basic equations. She skip counts in twos to solve simple

multiplication problems. Olivia uses partitioning strategies to simplify problem, in particular

to solve multiplication problems. However, whilst she is able to create equal groups in

multiplication, her lack of understanding of basic multiplication facts beyond counting in

twos and using doubling strategies, hinders her in solving simple problems efficiently.

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
3. Lesson Plan
Lesson Title: Gummy Bear Grouping
Learning intention/s:
Skip counting twos, threes, fives and tens, and recognising the importance of grouping
objects in equal ways.

e5: ENGAGE, EXPLORE

Lesson introduction (aligning-tuning in-motivating- the hook)
Brainstorm words for multiplication- times, multiply, groups of etc.
What are some other words for multiply.
The teacher will record this on paper for the student to keep

e5: EXPLORE, EXPLAIN, ELABORATE

Development/investigation
1a. Present the student with a container of Gummy bears.
How many bears do you think are?
1b. Ask the student to count the gummy bears.
Can you please count them
If they start to count in ones ask them to skip count in twos.
Is there are quicker way to count them? What about counting by twos?
1c. Ask the student to write this number (60) in their workbook. We will come back to this.

2a. Give the student two egg cartons

I want you to place the gummy bears in groups into the egg carton with one group
in each cup.
Think about how you could group them to make them easier to count
2b. Once the student has grouped the gummy bears ask them to count them again.
Can you count the bears for me in their groups?
2c. Link back the skip counting to basic multiplication strategies:
How many groups of two are there? How would you say that altogether?
The teacher will write down what the student says on a sticky note.

3a. Ask the student to think about other grouping patterns.

Lets regroup the gummy bears again. What is another way we could put them into
equal groups
3b. Repeat step/question 2, encouraging the student to group in 3s, then 5s, then 10s.

Adjusting the lesson

2a. The teacher may need to model the grouping at first. Start with twos.
Can you please group the bears for me?

3a. Base this on the previous step (2). If the student has previously grouped in threes,
prompt them to group in 5s or 10s as this is what were concentrating on in this lesson.
What would happen if we were to group in 5s?

The student may want to count all the gummy bears rather than counting in groups:

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
- Present the student with the hundreds chart. Point to the numbers they are trying to skip
count and ask them to count along as you point at them
Can you count along as I point to the numbers. What interval are we counting in?
Which number are we
counting the multiples of
Then direct the student back to the groups of gummy bears.
Can you see a similarity between what we just counted and the groups of bears?

e5: EXPLAIN, ELABORATE, EVALUATE

Making connections
The teacher will now have several sticky notes with the students language depicting how
the gummy bears were grouped (30 groups of 2, 20 groups of 3 etc.) These can be stuck
around the number written at the beginning of the lesson. If the student is able to skip
count rather than counting in ones they are meeting the learning intention. Similarly, the
student needs to be able to link skip counting state how many groups of __ there are
(question2c and corresponding) to be able to meet the learning intention, using the specific
words __ groups of___.

Materials:
- 60 Gummy bears
- 24 egg carton
- Sticky notes
- 100s chart
- Pencil
- Students work book
- Petti (2000, November 9)

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
4. Lesson Rationale (Maximum of 200 of your own words)
The lesson chosen for Olivia focuses on connecting skip counting with grouping in terms of
multiplicative strategies. It was apparent during the Mathematics Assessment Interview
that although Olivia is able to partition problems, she is not achieving this in an efficient
way, or modelling the use of skip counting beyond twos. The lesson is aimed at allowing
Olivia to develop her metacognitive skills, in which she observes her own behaviours in
counting by considering how to group the bears, and reviews her own thought process
(Reys, Lindquist, Lambdin, Smith, Rodgers, Falle, Frid and Bennet (2012). The use of
concrete materials, such as the gummy bears as counting tools, and the egg carton as a
grouping tool, take her back to the materials stage of the Pirie Kieren model (Wright
(2014)), as she struggled using imaging during the interview. The lesson particularly
emphasizes the use of grouping, and its relation to multiplication, as determined in the
introduction of the lesson, opposed to using formal strategies. The lesson would hopefully
assist in achieving understanding of strategies beyond simple doubling strategies to garner
mathematical understanding.

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
Student B: Elijah (If suppression of name
required call them B)
Grade/Year: 1
Date Interviewed: 2/4/14
Note: Attach the original record sheets from your interview of each
student to the back of the hard copy you submit to the Faculty of
Education dropbox. Keep a photocopy for yourself as backup.
5. Growth Point Table
Domain Assigned Growth Point
Counting 2
Place Value 2
Addition and Subtraction 1
Multiplication and Division 1

Who checked your growth point judgements?

Students name: Date:
Note: Their signature/s should be on the hard copy beneath each table.

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
6. Nutshell Statement (Maximum 150 words)
Elijah is capable of modelling addition and subtraction problems using concrete materials

and is also able to self correct small errors. He has a good understanding of counting

principles, and uses known facts to assist in solving problems. Elijah does not trust

cardinality as he chooses to count all for addition problems unless he is able to use prior

known facts such as 2+2 or 4+4. Similarly, Elijah, whilst thinking in terms of groups for

multiplication equations, adds the groups together rather than using multiplicative

strategies. He is unable to imagine an array, needing to have it visible. Elijah is able to read

and order three digit numbers and has a deep understanding of the value of tens and ones.

In particular, Elijahs struggle with the counting back sequence appears to hinder him in

terms of solving basic subtraction equations.

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
7. Lesson Plan
Lesson Title: Teddy Bear subtraction
Learning intention/s:
Solve simple subtraction equations using counting back strategies.

e5: ENGAGE, EXPLORE

Lesson introduction (aligning-tuning in-motivating- the hook)
Student is presented with a large counting strip drawn on the floor. Ask the student to walk
from 20 to 0.
Can you please count the numbers out loud as you walk backwards along them.
The teacher then asks the student to stand on a particular number.
Can you please stand on 13. What number comes before this number? using
different numbers.

e5: EXPLORE, EXPLAIN, ELABORATE

Development/investigation
1a. Give student container with plastic teddy bears.
I have a container here filled with teddies! Can you please count out twenty for
me.
1b. The teacher will take away some away and put them back in the container.
So you have twenty teddies on the table. Im going to take away five. How many
teddies are left.
Repeat until there are no teddies left.

2a. Give the student the A3 counting strip.

Can you please put twenty teddies on this counting strip, one in each segment.
2b. Ask the student to close their eyes and imagine the teddies on the strip. The teacher
will then take some away
Close your eyes. Im going to take away two teddies from the strip. I want you to
think about how many teddies will be left.
2c. The student will open their eyes. Encourage them to look at the number the last teddy
is on
How many teddies are left on the strip? Look at the last teddy, what number is it
on? What does this tell us?
2d. Ask the student to write it down, prompting them to use the mathematical formula: a-
b=c
Lets write this down in your book. How many teddies did we start with? How many
did we take away?
How many were left?
2e. Repeat questions 2. Increase difficulty if appropriate.

3a. The teacher will present a scenario to the student, first using mental strategies to
solve, then writing down strategies.
- I want you to listen to this question. If you have nine plants, and I take away 3 of
them, how many do
you have left?
- If you have 11 lolly snakes and you eat 4 of them, how many do you have left?

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
- If you start of the year with 24 grey lead pencils, and you use 13 of them, how
many do you have left at
the end of the year?

Adjusting the lesson

1b. If student counts all go back to the large number line from introduction and complete
some more activities (counting back, mentioning the number before, or two before).

2a. Instead of using 20 teddies, use only 10 if struggling.

2d. The student may require further prompting:
So we started with 20 teddies, we took away two and were left with 18. How do we
write that down?

3a. If the student is struggling with step/stage 2 do not move on with this step.

e5: EXPLAIN, ELABORATE, EVALUATE

Making connections
The teacher needs to come back to the equations the student has written in their book to
ensure the student is able to relate the activities in the lesson to the equations on the
page. The student is doing well if they are able to count backwards to solve a subtraction
problem rather than counting all objects. In particular in the first question/ set of steps, the
student needs to be able to count backwards. They will be unable to move onto the next
set of steps until they can show an understanding of counting back strategies.

Materials:
- Chalk (to write on carpet)
- Plastic teddy bears
- A3 counting strip
- Pencil
- Students workbook

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
8. Lesson Rationale
The Mathematics Assessment Interview highlighted that Elijah struggles with elements of
the counting back strategy, thus hindering him in terms of solving basic equation problems.
As stated by Reys et al. (2012), subtraction requires prior knowledge of place value and
basic facts. The New Zealand Government (2012) iterates that counting strategies are the
first step to solving addition and subtraction problems. Elijah has shown that he is capable
in terms of place value, and therefore the lesson was created to focus on basic facts, such
as counting. The lesson uses elements of the Pirie Kieren model, using materials and
imaging (Wright (2014)). I chose to use counting strips to assist Elijah in visualizing the
numbers. The lesson allows the student to use materials at first before moving on to
imaging. This is where Elijah particularly struggled in the interview. Therefore, I believe it
would be beneficial to go back to using materials for a brief period before attempting to
imagine numbers and concepts mentally. The lesson encourages Elijah to count out loud
and explain his thinking, thus allowing him to justify his mathematical thinking, and, as
stated by Reys et al. (2012), think about his own thinking.

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Assignment Task One: Cassandra Lia: S00142660
9. References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2012, February 22).
Mathematic scope and sequence. Retrieved from http://www.vcaa.edu.au
Baek, J. M. (2005). Childrens mathematical understanding and invented strategies
for multidigit multiplication. Teaching Children Mathematics, 12 (5), 242-247.
Retrieved from www.nctm.org
New Zealand Government (2012). Book 5: Teaching addition, subtraction, and place
value. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education
Petti, W. (2000, November 9). Multiplication idea bank. Retrieved from
http://www.mathcats.com
Reys, R. E., Lindquist, M. M., Lambdin, D. V., Smith, N. L., Rodgers, A., Falle, J., Frid,
S., & Bennett, S. (2012, 1st Australian Edition). Helping children learn
mathematics. Milton, Australia: John Wiley & Sons
Write, Vince. (2014). Lecture 1: Teaching Mathematics [Lecture]. Retrieved from
http://www.leo.acu.edu.au

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