Finding out what children already know is incredibly important to extend children’s learning.
This is highlighted in recommendation 4 of EEF’s ‘Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1’ guidance report. A variety of methods can be used to assess children’s understanding.
Diagnostic assessments within interventions are key to ensuring the support is targeted and effective. When the term diagnostic assessment is used, you might automatically think of multiple choice tests or quizzes.
But they can also take the form of ‘purposeful, playful practice’.
If you asked a child to answer written questions around number bonds, you would be able to see their final answer – not how they got to it.
Did they have to ‘count all’ to work out 6 + 4 or ‘count on’, or did they just know it?
This valuable information would not be gleaned in a written test.
Well-chosen games can offer us a clearer insight into children’s mathematical thinking. Listening carefully to their responses whilst playing a game can give a wealth of information about their prior knowledge.
This vital information can be used to support more effective planning to meet the needs of all pupils.
High-quality targeted support
High-quality targeted support can help all children learn mathematics.
Each of the seven different ‘Every Child Counts’ interventions have carefully planned and trialled diagnostic assessments at the heart of their recommended teaching sequence.
Every Child Counts provides professional development, training and resources for school leaders, teachers and teaching assistants in and beyond the UK.
The children that attend these interventions are those that lack confidence, often have poor self-efficacy and believe quite strongly that they are just no good at maths.
What can we learn about a child’s mathematical understanding with a cardboard box and some counters?
The Shake ‘n’ Add box is a favourite of many of our schools, and is used within 1stClass@Number1 to find out about a child’s confidence in subitising, addition, number bonds, commutativity, reasoning and comparison. It is a simple purposeful, playful activity that can be altered to a variety of contexts.
For example, half the box could be yellow and the other half blue. Pop a number of small world people into the box, simply shake and then talk about how many people are on the beach and how many in the sea.
Change the small world figures to animals. Cover half of the box with brown card to act as the shed. Shake again and talk about how many animals are sleeping in the shed.
Careful questioning and attentive listening can really help the trained teacher/teaching assistant gauge a child’s understanding, so that they can adjust future lessons to meet the needs of their small group. This is essential if the intervention is going to have maximum impact on the pupil’s progress in mathematics.
The Importance of a Skilled Practitioner
The teachers and teaching assistants who I have trained often say that the hardest part of these assessments is to balance their teaching and listening – to sit on their hands and keep quiet!
It is certainly a skill that needs to be developed.
Allowing a child to “go down a rabbit hole” or changing the question can be challenging. It is a skill that we help our trainees to develop and refine over time.
Learning to listen could help us to make those sensitive and timely adjustments, and purposeful play can be a powerful strategy for teachers and teaching assistants to implement as part of their repertoire of approaches
Every Child Counts is run by Edge Hill University on a not-for-profit basis and was set up with support from the DfE.
If you would like to find out more about taking part in an EEF funded trial, click here.