At Wilandra Rise Primary School the knowledge and skills that underpin numeracy are explicitly taught in the Mathematics strands Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability and reinforced and further exemplified in and across other curriculum areas. Through this process, students recognise that mathematics is widely used both in and outside school and learn to apply mathematical knowledge and skills in a wide range of familiar and unfamiliar situations.
At Wilandra Rise we use Proficiency Scales across various areas of the curriculum to identify student goals and indicate acheivement. In Numeracy they are used to identify learning gaps and growth in our students and points for celebration at the end of units
In a scale, each learning goal (taken from the Victorian Curriculum) is broken down into five scales, from 0-4.
The Blue section indicates an advanced knowledge of the skill and shows us students are ready to apply their knowledge in multi step problems and explain their thinking.
The Green section indicates that the student has understood the concept in a variety of examples.
The Yellow and Red section, are made up of skills students require and have learnt in previous year levels that will assist them in understanding the concept in the Green.
On the left you can see an example of how we use them in Year Two to break apart the Place Value Curriculum.
At Wilandra Rise students participate in "real world" maths through authentic tasks that are meaningful, are targeted at their age, interest levels and focus in on the entry point indentified on their Proficiency Scale.
Teachers build authentic tasks that are open and accessible and can add value to a student's learning, no matter what their stage of learning. These activities allow students to be collaborative, hands on, have discussions with peers and share their mathematical knowledge and thinking.
