Problem Picture 1

Location: Essex Heights Primary School Grade 1 learning space

Problem Picture Question 1

Grade level: 4

Question 1

Here is a picture of 3 tables grouped together. Each table seats 1 person. If we have 24 tables in the classroom,
what are some different ways we could evenly re arrange them? Draw or write how you could do this.

Answers to Question 1

1. You could put the tables in groups of 3, which means there would be 8 tables in each group.

2. You could divide the tables into groups of 8, which means you would have 3 tables in each group of 8.

3. Half of 24 is 12, so you could do 2 groups of 12 tables if you wanted to work in big groups of 12 groups of 2
tables if you wanted to work in small groups.

Victorian Curriculum - Number and Algebra

Number and Algebra, Number and Place Value, Level 4, Develop efficient mental and written strategies and use
appropriate digital technologies for multiplication and for division where there is no remainder, (ACMNA076)
Enabling Prompt

How could you make sure that the tables have been distributed into even groups? Using counters can you show
how you would do this?

Answers to Enabling Prompt

1. Well you could split the bunch of counters in half, which means that you could have two groups of 12 which
equals 24.

2. You could start off with 4 counters and then you could give one counter to each group until they run out,
you can count each group at the end to check if each group has the same amount of counters. This means there
would be 6 counters in each group.

3. You could count up wards by 2, so you could make one group of 2, then another group of 2 etc. until you use
all 24 counters. That means you would get 12 groups of 2.

Victorian Curriculum
Number and Algebra, Number and Place Value, Level 4, Develop efficient mental and written strategies and use
appropriate digital technologies for multiplication and for division where there is no remainder, (ACMNA076)

Justification for change to the original question

State the modification you made to the original question: Instead of the students focusing on multiple methods
they can use to make different groups of tables, the focus is simplified only to focus on partitioning the counters
to make even groups.

Why did you select this modification to make to the problem?

I did this because I believe that students would be able to act out partitioning relatively easy to help them
understand the basic concept of division, which is dividing something into equal parts. I think that if they are
already struggling with the idea of division then breaking it down so that they are only focussing on
partitioning will strengthen their understanding more so than getting overwhelmed with trying to figure out
different ways of doing division.

Extending Prompt
Is there a particular method or rule that you used in order to help you re arrange the tables in several different
ways? If so, what worked for you?

Answers to Extending Prompt

1. I found all of the factors of 24 to arrange the tables. Eg. 2 groups of 12, 3 groups of 8, 4 groups of 6.
2. I also found the factors of 24 but you could also switch the groups around. Eg. 6 groups of 4 and 4 groups of
6 both equal 24 but the groups are just different which means you can make more groups. (Commutativity)

3. I kept dividing 24 in half until I couldnt anymore. First I got 12 so I made 2 groups of 12, then I divided 12
by 2 and got 6 so I made 4 groups of 6 and then I divided 6 by 2 and got 3 so I made 8 groups of 3. This was easy
to with counters because it was less confusing than doing it in my head.

Victorian Curriculum
Number and Algebra, Number and Place Value, Level 4, Develop efficient mental and written strategies and use
appropriate digital technologies for multiplication and for division where there is no remainder, (ACMNA076)

Justification for change to the original question

This question enables students to extend their thinking by making different representations of how to
rearrange the tables. The answers to the extending prompt would show that the students have a clear
understanding of how you can use multiplication as a way of solving division problems. This also allows
students to think outside the box and come up with rules and methods that are alternative to simply using
division.

Cross-Curriculum Links
This picture could be really useful to have up on the interactive white board in an English writing lesson. Whilst
on placement, the students in my grade class were learning about informative writing and how the body of
the writing should be divided into three equal parts. You could use the picture on the interactive whiteboard to
draw an example of a new topic sentence on each of the tables which reinforces the fact that the body of the
writing must be divided into 3 equal parts. This will help students understand the basic structure of
informative and other types of texts and is a nice visual aid to help them develop their understanding.

Victorian Curriculum - Cross-curriculum

Writing Literacy, Level 4, Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key
information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control
over text structures and language features (ACELY1694)

Report of Trialling Problem Picture 1

Childs pseudonym, age and grade level:

Ellie, 10, Grade 4

Original Question:
Here is a picture of 3 tables grouped together. Each table seats 1 person. If we have 24 tables in the classroom,
what are some different ways we could evenly re arrange them? Draw or write how you would do this.
Childs response to the question:

Response to extending
question:

You just need to find all the

numbers that 24 can be divided
by, but the cant have a
remainder.

You could also figure out the

timetables that equal 24 because
that gives you the groups and
how many tables in the each
group.

Reflection on childs response:

Student understood the concept of the question and what it was asking. Having known the students background and
mathematics ability from my most recent placement, I anticipated that she would be able to answer the original
question quite easily with both a drawn and written response. Hinchey (2010) believes that communicating verbally
or in writing is an essential part of learning and can signal to the teacher whether learning has occurred. Her
knowledge of number, in particular, her times tables are really strong so I knew she would require the extending
question to promote more complex thinking. Ellie showed that she could answer the extending prompt where she
described the rules that she used to find more than one way of grouping the tables together eg. Finding the factors
of 24 and using commutativity (see written response in students responses above.) I feel like this is definitely a
strength in Ellies mathematical understanding of multiplication and division because she is able to apply certain
rules and use certain skills to show how to figure out a problem. Hinchey (2010) believes that in a constructivist view
of teaching, the focus should not be on whats right or wrong but should be on the process of what meaning
students can construct. I think that Ellies ability to respond to the extending questions is a good example of how she
could make meaning out of solving the initial question.

The question addressed the links to the curriculum highlighted throughout this section (Problem Picture 1) as the
question requires the student to construct suitable data displays ie. Column graph using giving on collected data i.e.
Car park picture as the Victorian Curriculum (2016) highlights.
I would probably give clearer instructions next time as to which cars the student/s should count in the picture, which
would be the ones that are most visible as I think it could get a bit confusing trying to include every single car
photographed considering it his hard to tell the colours of the cars in the back ground.

References for reflection on the trial of question 1:

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 2016. Level 1 Science. Victorian Government. Retrieved on 8th Aug;
http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/level1?layout=1&d=S

Hinchey P., 2010. Rethinking what we know: positivist and constructivist epistemology. Finding freedom in the
classroom: a practical introduction to critical theory, pp.3356.