A No Worksheet Required Subtraction Assessment

  • Posted by:Ann Baker

Thanks, Jessica Tiver, for reading my last blog post on subtraction – Subtraction Gobbledygook – and asking a question about the links between addition and subtraction and how to know if your students have ‘got it’ on our Facebook page . I love getting questions – it really helps me to know what you’re interested in and how I can help!

I have created a Number Talk of related questions and explain how to use them below. Actually, I am currently adapting number talks to make them fit cohesively into a Natural Maths numeracy block.

What I do is put up a screen such as the following and ask students to see if they can work smart not hard to answer the questions, no paper and pencil.

The screen will be annotated after the following steps have been carried out.

  • Students are given think time to notice patterns and structures.
  • Students now turn to a partner and compare ideas.
  • The whole class, facilitated by the teacher, identify and elaborate on what has been noticed and …
  • The Number Talk screen is annotated:

NOTE: all offerings are accepted and valued and built upon. All up the whole process takes no more than 10 minutes and links to the main content and learning intent of the lesson.

As you listen to the student conversations and reflections insights into how (or not) connections are being developed will become evident.

Finally ask the students to create their own question strings that can be used in follow up number talks and as formative assessment.

Want to know more about Number Talks? Have some to try out? Number talks are a feature in the latest Natural Maths Products, Building Multiplicative Strategies and Early Subtraction. You can access the Number Talks as individual modules, or as part of the whole series.