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In this learning overview are suggested assessment opportunities linked to the assessment focuses within the Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP) guidelines. As you plan your teaching for this unit, draw on these suggestions and on alternative methods to help you to gather evidence of attainment, or to identify barriers to progress, that will inform your planning to meet the needs of particular groups of children. When you make a periodic assessment of children’s learning, this accumulating evidence will help you to determine the level at which they are working.
To gather evidence related to the three Ma1 assessment focuses (problem solving, reasoning and communicating), it is important to give children space and time to develop their own approaches and strategies throughout the mathematics curriculum, as well as through the application of skills across the curriculum.
In this unit the illustrated assessment focuses are:
Children pose questions, plan and develop lines of enquiry, interpreting data and reviewing the methods used. They investigate questions such as:
Which are the wettest places in different locations around the world?
On average, how many litres of liquid does the class drink per week?
Children read scales accurately and record results. For example, they read and record the amount of liquid that they drink from a calibrated measuring jug. They pour amounts from one jug to another in order to take readings from different scales. They justify their estimates of amounts that fall between divisions, and read scales labelled in intervals other than 1 and 10. They convert between units when, for example, they are adding the capacities of cans or bottles of fruit juice.
Assessment focus: Ma3, Measures
Look for evidence of children interpreting scales on a range of measuring instruments and explaining what each division on the scale represents. As they compare measurements, look for children who demonstrate awareness of the units used. Look for evidence of children converting metres to centimetres, kilograms to grams, litres to millilitres, or hours to minutes, and vice versa, to compare measurements and calculate differences. Look for evidence of children checking whether the measurements they make are reasonable, using the estimates they made beforehand or their previous experience of the context.
Children set up an experiment to collect local rainfall and compare this with other cities, ensuring that they convert all measures to millimetres for comparison. They collect data from primary and secondary sources. For example, they collect data on the amount of rainfall in one week (primary data) and the average rainfall in cities from the Internet or atlases (secondary data). They organise and represent their information in a variety of ways.
Children choose appropriate data collection methods such as simple counts in the classroom, observation of events or experiments, surveys or from the Internet. They use frequency tables to record their data and represent it in a variety of ways, including by using ICT. They construct and interpret line graphs, and consider whether intermediate points have meaning. For example, they plot temperatures at midday over a week.
Assessment focus: Ma4, Processing and representing data
Look for evidence of children choosing how to collect and record discrete and continuous data; for example, look out for children who use tallies to record their count as they group discrete data such as scores in a game. Look for children who can decide which unit to use when measuring lengths or amounts of liquid and who write the unit into the column heading of their data collection sheet. Look for evidence of the scales that children choose to use when drawing a graph or using ICT to produce a graph. For example, look for children making decisions based on the range of numbers to be represented, the size of paper available, and how accurately they wish to read information from the finished graph.
Children use bar charts in a variety of contexts, making decisions and drawing conclusions from their results. For example, they decide whether it will be necessary to bring a heavy outside coat to next week's school visit based on the temperatures over the last week. They apply their strategies for reading scales to interpreting axes, and selecting the appropriate scale to use when constructing their own bar charts. They use ICT to compare the effect of using different scales.
Children begin to group discrete data. For example, they draw a bar chart of marks scored in a mental mathematics test, grouping the data in intervals of 5 marks (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, ...).
Children interpret simple pie charts, responding to questions such as:
What fraction of the people living in Ham village are between 16 and 60 years of age?
If there are 2484 people living in the village, how many people does that represent?
Assessment focus: Ma1, Communicating
Look out for children who can make their own decisions about how to record their work and do so in a clear and organised way. For example, as they draw a bar chart, look for children who clearly label the axes and scales. Look for those who can explain why they choose to organise and represent their data in this way, and who can state the questions that they can use the data to answer.
Children find modal values and begin to use the median and range. They begin to consider the mean and discuss the meaning and use of 'averages' in a variety of contexts. For example, they work out the range, mode, mean and median of the temperatures that they have recorded at midday over a given fortnight, or of their scores in a mental mathematics test.
Assessment focus: Ma4, Interpreting data
Look for evidence of children choosing to use the mode and range when they describe and compare sets of data, and who are beginning to understanding how they might be used in everyday life. Look for evidence of children drawing conclusions from their data, answering the original questions, or raising others.
Children support their calculations by using a calculator to, for example, calculate the mean temperature over a fortnight or the missing score in a test, given the mean and nine out of the ten scores.
| Objectives Children's learning outcomes are emphasised |
Assessment for learning |
|---|---|
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What information will you need to collect to pursue your enquiry? How will you collect it? |
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What are you trying to find out? What information are you aiming to collect? How? |
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What kind of graph or chart will you use to represent this data?  |
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What did you find out? What evidence do you have to support your conclusions? 
What is his mean (average) time? |
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Draw a flow chart to help someone convert between mm, cm, m and km. |
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Give me a measurement that would lie between these points on this scale (e.g. between 4.6 kg and 4.7 kg). 
The diagram shows the volume of water in two measuring jugs. 
Which jug contains more water, A or B? How much more does it contain? |
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You will be making observations of visits to the bird table. You may want to make a tally or to annotate a diagram. |
| Activities | PDF 1MB |
| Activity 80 - Cola in the bath |
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Objectives for Springboard intervention unit |
Springboard unit |
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Know approximate equivalents of imperial and metric units for lb and kg, miles and km, litres and pints |
Springboard 6 Unit 15 (PDF 379KB) |
| Diagnostic focus | Resource |
| Has inefficient counting strategies and/or insecure understanding of the number system | 1 Y6  /-DfES 1132-2005 (PDF 101KB) |
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