education.vic.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/maths/assessment.htm

1. Introducingthe Mathematics Online Interview www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/maths/assessment.htm

2. Background • The Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP) was commissioned by the Department of Education, Employment and Training: 1999 – 2001. • An aim of the ENRP was to challenge teachers to explore their beliefs and understandings about how children develop their understanding of mathematics • A need was identified for a comprehensive assessment tool for early numeracy. • The Interview was established on the research framework of significant mathematical points of growth.

3. What is the Interview? • One-on-one interview away from the regular classroom • Mainly hands-on tasks incorporating concrete materials • Focus is on mental computation • Responses focus on strategies that the students use … not only the correct answer • 61 questions and sub-questions • Questions ranging from Level 1 – 4 (VELS) • Should take 30 - 40 minutes

4. Areas assessed by the Interview • Counting • Place value • Strategies for addition & subtraction • Strategies for multiplication & division • Time • Length • Mass • Properties of shape • Visualisation

5. Example questions from the Interview This question is part of the Detour designed for students in their first year of school.

6. Example questions from the Interview This question (from the addition & subtraction section) focuses on strategies used eg. using doubles, near doubles and fact families.

7. Example questions from the Interview This question is a reasonably challenging question from the place value section.

8. Example questions from the Interview This question This question requires advanced number skills. This is a question demonstrating alignment to the Level 4 Standard.

9. Example questions from the Interview This question is one of the last questions in the Interview from the visualisation section.

10. Why use the Interview? Assessment FOR learning • Understand individual students’ needs • Find out how students ‘think’ and ‘feel’ while doing Mathematical tasks • Gain insight into student thought process in action • Generate detailed profiles showing students achievement in relation to points of growth • Track student growth over time • Inform planning for focused teaching at the point of need

11. Enables students to showcase their skills and understandings due to individualised pathways through the Interview.

12. Who is the Interview appropriate for? • Powerful for all students in Levels 1 – 3 (Prep – Year 4) • The ‘high ceiling’ provides scope for questions up to Level 4 in some areas • Potential for use with ‘at risk’ students in Year 5 and beyond.

13. The learner at the centre

15. Important points • Firstly, schools must assign a ‘school administrator’ • Check the school’s internet browser functionality to ensure settings are set at a fast speed • Must create classes first – this is the first admin function listed • Import function is to import interview records from the old CD-ROM program – you can only do this once • Remember to select the right session Read the School User Guide! www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/mathscontinuum/interviewuserguide.pdf

16. Aligning the Interview with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards • Points of growth informed the development of the VELS Mathematics standards & progression points • Points of growth will support teachers to understand and implement the VELS • Powerful links with the Mathematics Developmental Continuum indicators of progress and teaching strategies

18. Using the Interview results to plan your program • Step 1 It is important that interviewing is conducted by the classroom teacher for the students in their class. An important part of the interview is the relationship building between student and teacher, and the information that can be gathered by observation.

19. Using the Interview results to plan your program • Step 2: Feel confident with the Interview data you have received. Ask: Is there data that doesn’t fit with your understanding/ perception of the student’s prior knowledge? If so, review the Interview results and consider what might have affected the student’s responses.

20. Using the Interview results to plan your program • Step 3: Use the profiles to reveal the student’s highest point of growth achieved in each area. • Use ‘student profile’ or ‘group profile’ to group students together who present with similar learning needs.

21. Example group profile: Number - Place value

22. Using the Interview results to plan your program • Step 4: Determine the specific learning focus of the next mathematics session. Using the previous profile an example learning focus may be ‘Visualising patterns in the Hundreds chart’.

23. Using the Interview results to plan your program • Step 5: Consider the context for the learning experiences and activities (games, materials, resources, calculators etc). The Mathematics Developmental Continuum can support this selection with some powerful examples of tasks and guidance on effective teaching strategies.

24. Links with the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P - 10

25. Links with the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P - 10 • In this Place Value example, the indicator of progress ‘Using a hundreds chart for mental calculation’ offers advice on teaching strategies for developing visualising, as well as a variety of tasks for students with differing needs. • These have been linked to tasks achieved on the Mathematics Interview that indicate appropriate prerequisite understanding.

26. Links with the Mathematics Developmental Continuum P - 10 Activity 3: Missing numbers Once students can put a complete chart together, prepare a chart with some numbers missing. Cut the chart into 'jigsaw' pieces. You could use jigsaw pieces with only one number showing for the students to complete the missing numbers. For example what numbers are missing in the boxes shown? Always, students should describe how they obtain answers in terms of adding or subtracting10 (moving vertically) or 1 (moving horizontally).

27. Building on what students already know and are able to do

28. Interview influencing classroom planning • Types of tasks become part of classroom programming and learning experiences for students • Strategies promoted in the Interview, for example ‘near doubles’ will become powerful in the teaching environment • Focus on mental computation rather than formal written equations as the only option • Importance of articulating thinking – this should be valued and shared often • Use of materials to support students to develop visual images of their thinking – from concrete to abstract over time

29. Interview influencing professional learning for teachers … • The Interview results can provide an opportunity to discuss efficient ways to move students forward – best practice. • For example: Length – how can we more effectively support students to move from ‘using uniform units appropriately to quantify length’ to ‘using formal units for estimating and measuring length, with accuracy’? • What knowledge do teachers need to plan effective learning experiences around this concept?

30. Additional Resources • School User Guide (PDF - 3.5Mb) - a comprehensive manual including detailed instructions of all new functionality. • Mathematics Online Interview Booklet (PDF - 937Kb) - details each question in the Interview, preparation, how to administer and links with research. • Teaching strategies linked to the Mathematics Online Interview - 'I have done the Interview, now what …?' This resource links the Mathematics Developmental Continuum teaching strategies with appropriate tasks from the Interview. • Mathematics Online Interview links with the Victorian Essential Learning Standards - advice for teachers to link the questions from the Mathematics Online Interview to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards for Mathematics, across the five dimensions. • Mathematics Online Interview - Starting Points - When interviewing a student who has a current interview record, teachers should start at tasks which are suitable to the student’s developmental level based on their performance through the previous interviews. • Mathematics Online Interview - Observation Notes - These documents will support teachers to target their observations whilst conducting the Interview. It will be particularly helpful for teachers using the Interview for the first time.