EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Assessment interview of Child A:

Foundation Year
I used a range of questions and tasks for child A to answer and complete, in order to test her
understanding of the concept of patterning, which is an essential prerequisite to later learning
mathematics such as in algebra. The materials using in this assessment interview were wooden
blocks and christmas tree decoration.

Step 1:
I introduced the materials we would use to child A, and explained that she would have to do some
tasks and answers some questions to see how clever she is.
Step 2:
When she was ready to start, she was asked to firstly put one red christmas tree, then following by
a green christmas tree, then another red one, and end with another green one. All four christmas
tree lined up in a straight line with the pattern or Red-Green-Red-Green.
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Step 3: We continued our assessment with questions and answers.

Childrens language stage

Me: Do you know what we are building?
Child A: A train from christmas trees - she smiled

Me: Can you tell me what is repeating on your train?

Child A: The same colours here and here (She pointed at the first red tree then the third red tree, and
then the second green one then the fourth green one)

Me: Can you describe the order of the colours of your train please?
Child A: Yes, red - green - red - green (She quickly answered with pointing on the trees)

Me: So, if your train is longer, what will be built after the fourth green one? (I pointed at the fourth tree)
Child A: Hmmmm (She was thinking and looked at the left objects in around five seconds) Well, I will
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

put the red one here (she put after the fourth green tree), then the green one, then red and then the
green.

Me: Why did you put the order of red-green-red-green for your train?
Child A: She was confused in some seconds then answered Because it is pretty and steady.
At this step, child A proved that she understood that patterning was repeating elements and she
could build the following elements in the pattern.

Material language stage

Then she was asked to make her own patterns. I also provided the blocks and she was happy to
combine all for her "magic train". She also could describe the patterns and predict the coming
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

elements if the patterns were longer. When I asked how did you decide what came next in each pattern,
she used her hands put it one part of the pattern and said this part is the same of this part along with
moving her hands to another same part.
Here is what she created:

At this step, although the patterns looked quite similar, she proved that she deeply understood
what patterning was as she could create the patterns with a high creativity and she could describe
her patterns as well as make prediction.
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Mathematic language stage

Then I asked her to use only block to create a pattern. She easily created it. Here is her pattern:

As impressed by her creativity, I increased the difficulty in her task by building a flat base of nine
blocks as shown below:
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Child A then was asked to make any patterns she could think of. She was confused in almost 30
seconds then she put some more blocks on the top, but then removed it. After another 10 seconds,
she expressed her happiness to me when saying that she might be able to build another stair. She
started by putting more blocks on the top of the base block and left the last position. I asked her
how many blocks she might need for the second line, then the following lines. She was confused
and said she was not sure, but she knew she had to leave one position left at the end of each line
in order to make a shape of stairs.

Evaluation:
Child A showed a deeply understanding of patterning concept. She demonstrated in the interview
the fluency in early number concept through the ability to recognize and copy the pattern, as well
as predict the coming elements. It took her just five seconds to predict the next elements in the
pattern and be able to use materials to represent the predicted elements. She also demonstrated
the problem-solving and reasoning skills through the ability to combine different materials for
creating patterns with the explanation for her prediction. Even though she created patterns based
on her perspective about pretty and steady in pattern, in the last difficult task, she displayed the
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

high problem-solving skill when solving an unfamiliar problem using her previous knowledge and
discussing with reasonable answers (Reys, et al., 2012; Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2015). Her level is at mathematic language stage when she could use
blocks and combine with other materials. However, she still preferred using childrens language stage
with the story for each pattern she created.

Assessment interview of child B

Year 2
In the interview with child B, I used candies and cups for holder in the childrens language stage, blocks
in material language stage. I also used blocks along with pencil and paper in mathematics language
stage. At the symbolic, we used paper and pencil for recording. I introduced the materials we would
use, and explained that she would have to do some tasks and answers some questions about
multiplication.

Step 1 Childrens language stage with candies and cups

Me: We have four cups here and each cup should have three candies. How many candies we have
altogether?
Child B: Three six nine twelve. There are twelve candies altogether
The candies were still on the floor. Child B pointed in each empty cup and said out loud
with skip counting by three and gave the answer.
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Me: Can you please put the candies inside the cups when you count?
Child B: Yes, sure She quickly wrapped a bunch of candies and left three candies in each cup when
skip counted by three again, then answered again I was right, there are twelve candies

Child B showed her fluency in skip counting by three to solve the problem which has demonstrated
her understanding of the concept of multiplication, which is the repeat of equal groups. She could use
three fingers representing for three candies and pointed at the cups when counting, which showed that
have a good solving problem skill.
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Step 2: Material language stage with wooden blocks

Me: Now imagine that you have eight friends, each friend has two blocks. So how many blocks do
your friends have altogether?
Child B: One friend has two blocks - she put two blocks together and then stopped to think- eight
friends means two blocks times eight is sixteen then she made seven other groups of two blocks
and said it is sixteen

:
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Child B showed that she knew the answer before she represented it with the blocks. It was clearly
that she has a deeply understanding of the concept of multiplication with the above level in the
material language stage.

Step 3: Mathematic language stage with blocks and drawing

Me: Can you use the blocks to represent two by four and give me the answer?
Child B: Yes, sure. Two by four is eight She gave me the answer before making the blocks.

Me: Can you draw an array to represent two by four

Child B: It is easy

Child B could also represent five by five by building an array of blocks.

 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Child B has demonstrated that the ability to build or draw the arrays representing for multiplication.
However, she always gave the answer before starting building or drawing.

Step 4: Symbolic language stage with symbols

Child B was asked to read aloud the questions and the answer.
1/ 3 x 2
Child B: three times two is six
Me: How do you work it out?
Child B gave three fingers of each hand and say three and three is six

2/ 5 x 8
Child B: five times eight is forty she quickly answered
Me: How do you work it out?
Child B was confused to give the answer.
Me: What is multiplication?
Child B: the addition of the same groups
 EDMA262 |Assessment Task | S00158949 | Thi Vu Dan Tam DUONG

Me: so can you explain five by eight?

Child B: oh, there are eight groups of five

3/ 8 x 5
Child B was confused, and it took her around 10 seconds to give the answer which was forty.
Me: So how do you work it out?
Child B: there are five groups of eight
Me: Can you tell me what did you think when you first saw this question until you gave the answer
of forty?
Child B: I recalled eight multiplication facts

4/ 7 x 1
Child B immediately said 7

5/ 959 x 1
Child B surprised and looked at me the number is too big, I do not know the answer

Evaluate:
Child B has demonstrated a good understanding of the concept of multiplication. She could use skip
counting skill with her fingers to illustrate the equal groups of objects which identified her problem-
solving ability. She also showed the ability to represent multiplication in groups and arrays. She
could be able to recall basic multiplication facts; however, she was unable to show the
understanding of commutative property in multiplication. She was also confused with the concept of
identity property in multiplication. Even though these properties are expected to know and apply
from Year 7, commutativity should be introduced clearly to primary children in order to help them
learn and use basic facts more efficient and revenge the misconception later in division (Reys et al.,
2012).
Based on the interview above, I will create activities for child B to support her understanding of the
concept of identity property as well as commutative in multiplication.