Numeracy in Action Assessment Task 1Teaching Number and Algebra

Group Members Lisa Elliston and Kristy Walford Kristy and Lisa have had the opportunity to work together on many occasions throughout the past two years. They work exceptionally well together as they know their own strengths and weakness and are able to adapt and support each others learning styles. There are many situations where they have a mutual understanding of the topic being discussed and share strong opinions and beliefs, on occasion when opinions are varied, Lisa and Kristy learn from one another. They decided at the beginning of this task to create an overall goal and to establish a set of operational principles to avoid any conflict and stay on task.

Desired Outcomes (Overall Goals) Establish and communicate an understanding of Number and Algebras sub-stand, Patterns and Algebra from the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics Create learning experiences that establish connectedness between classroom and the world beyond school Display a mutual understanding of, and ability to demonstrate the necessary professionalism between, students, peers and colleagues Explore and address challenges that hinder students development of mathematics

Operational Principles Scheduled tasks to be completed by the time frame discussed Open communication between group members Always keep an open mind Build on group members individual strengths and support and assist group weakness Respect and affirm group members suggestions Attention to detail paid to all works

Scheduled meetings Meeting One: Operational principles and outline what is to be achieved (overall and at meetings) Research the strand, Number and Algebra and the relevant sub strands Investigate scope and sequence for Number and algebra Discuss and decide on most appropriate sub-strand Meeting Two: Organise content descriptors into table layout Consider declarative and procedural knowledge found in the content descriptors Discuss alternative options for the presentation of the assessment Meeting Three: Set up online account for a Weebly Design graphic organiser that displays the development of Procedural and Declarative knowledge throughout P-7 Meeting Four: Discuss and organise layout structure of Weebly Identify potential challenges that students (P-7) may face while developing mathematical proficiency Create diagnostic tasks that will identify learning needs related to Patterns and Algebra sub-strand Meeting Five: Discuss and design activities that display varied teaching strategies that align with the challenges presented Justify with references from various literature on teaching and learning mathematics Meeting Six: Transfer content into Weebly and ensure layout is aesthetically pleasing Co-construct reference list Re-read assessment task and criteria sheets and re-read assessment Make and necessary changes Publish website Meeting Seven: Read with fresh eyes website Make any necessary changes, republish Work individually on Prcis Upload assessments

Agenda
Meeting One Operational principles and outline what is to be achieved Research the strand, Number and Algebra and the relevant sub strands Investigate scope and sequence for Number and algebra Discuss and decide on most appropriate substrand Conversations/ Discussions This was the first meeting where we decided to work together as a team. We started by printing out the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics document and familiarising ourselves with the Number and Algebra strand. We also outlined what we wanted to achieve from the task and criteria sheets. Kristy suggested we scaffold all communication through developing a set of operational principles. We then brainstormed tasks that needed to be completed, resulting in a skeleton framework of what each meeting would consist of. We discussed the different strands and Lisa suggested that perhaps we choose a sub-strand that we had little experience with in our school placements. This is when we both agreed to use the sub-strand, Pattern and Algebra. Kristy and Lisa both had co-constructed a list of questions to ask the Lecturer about: Do we start with an analysis of Number and Algebra strand including definition and all content descriptors for that strand (F-7)? Are we analysing the D&P knowledge for only 1 sub-strand? Also, is the D&P what we have interpreted from the content descriptors? Can the Graphic organiser just be a table? Or is it more beneficial for our marks to be creative? Does everything we do have to be recorded online?

Agenda
Meeting Two Organise content descriptors into table layout Conversations/ Discussions Our second meeting involved organising our content descriptors into a table format and discussing what our declarative and procedural knowledge would look like. We worked together on each year levels content descriptor and carefully created a list of characteristics that students

Consider declarative and procedural knowledge found in the content descriptors

would be able to know and what they would be able to do (Declarative and Procedural). Asking the lecturer our uncertainties and our mutual view on Declarative and Procedural knowledge, made this task relatively easy. The task sheet suggested creating a Wiki to display how our team worked collaboratively, however, Lisa proposed we use a Weebly as she felt it presented a more

Discuss alternative options professional appearance. for the presentation of the assessment Questions asked: Is Wiki the best platform to use? How can we get accurate declarative and procedural knowledge?

Agenda
Meeting Three Conversations/ Discussions The third meeting was planned to set up a Weebly account. We spent more time on this than Set up online account for a anticipated, however, were pleased with the results. The rest of the meeting was spent designing Weebly the most appropriate way display the development of both the Declarative and Procedural Design graphic organiser knowledge from Foundation through to Year 7 on a graphic organiser. Kristy has previous that displays the development of Procedural and Declarative knowledge throughout P-7 Questions asked: Are we doing all the years descriptors? Do we need to display the procedural and declarative knowledge in headings? What is the best graphic organiser to use, that will be easy to follow and allow the audience to understand it?
Mind map/ Concept map/ Fishbone /word web/ flow chart

experience using a website that assists to create graphic organisers; therefore she led the construction of our teams map.

Agenda
Meeting Four Discuss and organise layout structure of Weebly Identify potential challenges that students (P-7) may face while developing mathematical proficiency Create diagnostic tasks that will identify learning needs related to Patterns and Algebra sub-strand Conversations/ Discussions Meeting four started with briefly setting out headings in our Weebly website. We had a rough idea what pages were required, so Lisa started to set that up, while Kristy delegated herself to starting the potential challenges that students may face when learning Mathematics. Lisa later joined Kristy to continue to work on challenges. Both Kristy and Lisa contributed ideas that the other may not of originally thought of. For example Kristy suggested that Foundation year may not be able to extend learning beyond the classroom, whereas Lisa had not yet thought of that. Once potential challenges for Foundation to Year 7 were established, Lisa and Kristy started to create assessment tasks that would be able to diagnose these problems. Individual research was done to obtain various referenced activities. Questions asked What is the difference between diagnostic tasks and teaching and learning tasks? How can we display this effectively? Are these challenges always evident in the classroom?

Agenda
Meeting Five Discuss and design activities that display Conversations/ Discussions In our fifth meeting, we decided to build on our diagnostic activities to create activities that displayed a variety of teaching and learning strategies. Kristy and I brainstormed on a white board to come up with solutions to the problems that we identified earlier. We spent majority of

varied teaching strategies that align with the challenges presented Justify with references from various literature on teaching and learning mathematics

this meeting researching literature that would be beneficial to our assessment. We held a few discussions during this time to explain what each person had found. Lisa and Kristy both started individual reference pages that could easily be combined towards the end of the task. Questions asked: What sort of references are we looking for? Do we need to reference the challenges, diagnostic activities and the teaching learning strategies? Should we divide up the work and meet back with possible solutions? Are the activities for the class or individuals?

Agenda
Meeting Six Transfer content into Weebly and ensure layout is aesthetically pleasing Co-construct reference list Re-read assessment task and criteria sheets and reread assessment Make and necessary changes Publish website Conversations/ Discussions This is our sixth meeting relating to our assessment piece. After tiding up loose ends from our fifth meeting, it was now time to transfer our content over to our Weebly website. This was extremely time-consuming and frustrating. The last item to be added was our reference page. Lisa had emailed Kristy the references she had collated over the past several weeks. Kristy then worked on aligning both sets of references while Lisa continued to work on the Weebly website. Kristy and Lisa discussed the aesthetics numerous times, both working on finding resources to improve its look. Once we were satisfied with the overall website, Kristy suggested to wait a few days and come back with fresh eyes.

Agenda
Meeting Seven Read website with fresh eyes Make any necessary changes, republish Work individually on Prcis Upload assessments Conversations/ Discussions This 7 meeting was scheduled to be our last. All that was left to do was re-read. Lisa suggested
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re-reading the task and criteria sheets to avoid omitting anything vital. Once this was complete we individually read through the website. There were only a few things we collaboratively decided to change. For example, Kristy was not happy with the diagnostic activities we came up with for Year 5. We modified it slightly to better fit in with the task sheet. We were then happy with the final product, so we re-published the website and started work on our individual prcis. Lisa suggested working on them at the same time, as to encourage each other in order to keep to our original deadline.