16 March 2016 School of Education

PO Box 71
BUNDOORA,
Victoria 3083 Australia
Telephone: +61 3 9925 7916
Facsimile: +61 3 9925 7882

Dear Parent/Guardian,

I am writing to you as the Coordinator of the TCHE2431 Teaching number and Algebra in the
Primary School, a compulsory course in the Masters of Teaching Practice (Primary) at RMIT
University.

The purpose of this letter is to provide you with information about the school-based assessment
task that students are required to complete in order to satisfactorily meet the requirements of the
TCHE2431 course. This assessment task has been designed to highlight the importance of
accurately identifying student learning needs in mathematics as a basis for subsequent teaching.

Our students are required to use the Level 1 and 2 tools from the Assessment for Common
Misunderstanding materials (available on the Victorian Department of Education and Training
website) with a child between the ages of 6 and 9 years of age. The purpose of this is to identify
the childs learning needs in relation to a particular aspect of number. No child will be identified by
name in any written report although the information gained will be discussed with the classroom
teacher to assist the TCHE2431 student make sense of their observations and plan an appropriate
teaching response. An example of one of the tasks is given below.

Sharing Tool (Years 2 to 4)

Instructions:
Place 24 counters and 6 lolly-bags in front of student, point to counters and say, Can you share
these out equally so that every lolly-bag has the same amount of counters?
Note students response/strategy.
Place Card A and Card B in front of the student and say, Without counting can you tell me if there
are the same number of dots on each card, or does one card have more than the other? How
do you know?
If completed relatively easily, say, Imagine you have 2 lollies but your sister has 3 times as many
lollies as you. How many lollies does your sister have?

If you have any queries at any time, please do not hesitate to contact me on the numbers above or
by email, dianne.siemon@rmit.edu.au.

Yours Sincerely,

Professor Dianne Siemon

Coordinator TCHE2431