Year 1 Block C – Handling data and measures
Unit 1
Learning overview
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 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:
- Ma1, Communicating
- Ma3, Measures
- Ma4, Processing and representing data
- Ma4, Interpreting data
Children pose a question, gather information, order and interpret the information in group or whole-class enquiries. They solve problems such as:
- Which of these things is heavier than the bag of sand?
- Find four things in the classroom that are wider than your hand-span and four that are not.
- Put the pencils into order from shortest to longest.
- Which of the three bears would want which container? Put the containers into order, starting with the one that holds most.
Assessment focus: Ma1, Communicating
Look for evidence of children who can represent their solution to a problem practically, using objects. Look out for children who also recognise that they can make a pictorial record of information as they solve problems and who begin to use their recording to communicate with others about how the problem was solved.
Children measure by making direct comparisons. To compare the weight of one object with the weight of the bag of sand, for example, children hold one of the items in each hand and feel the difference, and they use a balance. They compare heights by placing objects together and the capacity of containers by pouring rice, sand or water from one container to the other. By comparing pairs of objects they build up the information they need to order more than two objects.
Assessment focus: Ma3, Measures
As they measure by direct comparison, look out for children responding to the language of comparison, for example, finding which of two objects is 'taller' or 'shorter', or 'heavier' or 'lighter'. As they pour material from one container to another, look for children who respond to or use language such as holds more, holds less or does not hold as much. Look for evidence of children using their comparisons of pairs of objects to begin to put three objects in order of weight or three containers in order of capacity.
Children place the objects on large diagrams prepared for the task to show what they have found out.
Children collect numerical information and record it in tables and block graphs. For example, to find out how many cubes different children in the group can pick up with one hand they might draw a table to show their names and record the numbers of cubes. Alternatively, each child might fix the cubes into a column and display the labelled columns as a block graph.
Assessment focus: Ma4, Processing and representing data
Look for children who, with the support of discussion to clarify the enquiry, make a list or use a given table or large diagram to assemble information. For example, look for children collecting names and numbers in tables and lists or placing objects on the appropriate part of a diagram.
| Name | Cubes |
|---|---|
| Mary | 8 |
| James | 7 |
| Lisa | 5 |
| Mark | 6 |
Children use the table or block graph to answer questions such as:
- Who picked up the largest number of cubes?
- How many cubes did Mark pick up?
- Who do you think has the smallest hand? Why?
- Who picked up one more cube than Lisa?
Children solve other problems. They collect information about likes and dislikes by placing a brick or cube on the tower of their choice. They use the completed towers and labels to find, for example, their favourite ice-cream flavour.
Assessment focus: Ma4, Interpreting data
Look for children who use the list, table or diagram they have created to recall the activity. For example, look for children who recount the measuring or sorting and for those children who can respond to questions about the activity. Look for evidence of the conclusions children have drawn in light of the original enquiry. For example, look for children who use a set of plates in size order and conclude which might belong to each of the three bears, or who use a set of zips in order of length and say which is for a coat, which for a jacket and which for a pair of trousers.
| Objectives Children's learning outcomes are emphasised | Assessment for learning |
|---|---|
|
Answer a question by selecting and using suitable equipment, and sorting information, shapes or objects; display results using tables and pictures I can answer a question using the equipment my teacher uses |
How could you find out which objects are heavier than the bag of sand? What did you use to find out? Where do the objects that are heavier than the bag of sand belong on the diagram? Why is the box of paper clips here on the diagram? |
|
Describe ways of solving puzzles and problems, explaining choices and decisions orally or using pictures I can talk about how I solved a problem |
How did you find out which of these would hold the most water? How did you begin? How did you decide what you needed to do? How could you show someone else that this one holds most? |
|
Answer a question by recording information in lists and tables; present outcomes using practical resources, pictures, block graphs or pictograms I can help to answer a question and to show what we found out |
How could we show the number of children who voted for each of these? If you add your brick to that tower, what does that mean? Without counting, which of the flavours had most votes? How do you know? |
|
Use diagrams to sort objects into groups according to a given criterion; suggest a different criterion for grouping the same objects I can sort objects by placing them onto a big diagram |
How have you sorted the objects? Which of the objects on the diagram is wider than your hand-span? |
|
Estimate, measure, weigh and compare objects, choosing and using suitable uniform non-standard or standard units and measuring instruments (e.g. a lever balance, metre stick or measuring jug) I can compare the lengths/weights/capacities of more than two objects and put them in order |
Which of these three objects do you think will be the lightest? Which do you think will be the heaviest? Which will you compare first? What else will you have to do to check if you have put them in order from lightest to heaviest? |
|
Tell stories and describe incidents from their own experience in an audible voice I can tell another person what I have done |
Tell the others how you solved the problem. How did you begin? |
Resource links to existing published material
| Activities | Resources |
|---|---|
| Activity 5 - Bean-bag buckets | Puzzles and problems for Years 1 and 2 |
| Activity 22 - Christmas tree |
| Springboard unit | Resources |
|---|---|
| None currently available | |
| Diagnostic focus | Resources |
|---|---|
|
Makes unequal groups and cannot compare the groups |
3 YR ×/÷ |
- Previous:Key aspects of learning
- Next:Unit 2
Would you like to comment?
Register for an account, or log in if you are already a member