Child 1: Let me count.
Georgie: Check the count. Two, three, four, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Georgie: Oh, Ali got nine! Do you want to check your count? Oh, you were going that way. Okay. Do you want to count from the same end that Ali did and see what you get?
Child 2: One, two, three four, five, six, seven, eight.
Georgie: You got eight again. Clancy, you might have to check. Let's let Clancy check Ali.
Child 3: Oh, one, two ...
Georgie: three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Allright Ali and Clancy got nine and you got eight. Pippa and Annie you might have to come and check our counting because we're getting different numbers. Can you come and help us? Leave those for a minute.
Georgie: All right, Annie you go.
Georgie: What number did you get?
Georgie: Did you get a number? That many. How many is that? Five. Five. So, Annie got five. You got nine. You got nine. Izzy got eight. Do you want to test? Okay.
Georgie: Yeah.
Georgie: How many did you get? You got five as well!? All right. Shall we do it all together, and see? So, what we have to do to check, is we have to make sure that we touch each one. So touch this one. One, one, two, three, four, five. Oh, hang on, hang on! Whoa, come back, you're going too quick. We might have to start again because we have to try to do it like the headcount at morning meeting. We have to do it all together. Izzy, just wait. Let's stop. When I point you, count.
Georgie: One, two, three. Wait, wait, wait. Before ... oh no, we got confused again.
Georgie: How nine. You got nine now? Oh, no! Now everyone's getting different. All right. How about when we count them, put it in the basket? Izzy, do you want to grab the basket behind you? Drag it over. That's it. All right, so, when it goes in the basket, we count. One ...
Georgie: two, three, four, five, six, seven. Oh, That was two at once! We're going to do one at a time so we can count each one.
Child 4: Oh I got all of them.
Georgie: I know, but we didn't get a number. Should we try again? Right. Put them in a pile again. That's it. Tip them out. All right, I'm going to choose one person, to pick them up and the rest of us are going to count.
Georgie: So Izzy, move them back, Clancy. I'm going to turn around, pull the basket. So Clancy's going to be the stick picker upper. One, two,
Georgie: three,
Georgie: four,
Georgie: five,
Georgie: six, seven, eight,
Georgie: nine. We got there! Did we count them all? And how many was that? Nine. Oh gosh, I'm glad we solved that problem.
Kirsty Liljegren: Hello, I'm Kirsty Liljegren. Here we encounter a small group of children on a shared quest to find out how many sticks there are in the collection. As you will see, a problem becomes an opportunity navigated expertly by the listening strategies of the teacher. We see that the fascination with numbers and the joy of counting are part of children's daily lives. What stands out to you at this moment? How do you ensure that you look beyond the obvious of whether children can count correctly or not? How do you assess the varied ways children are contributing to this mathematical problem? As the counting expedition begins, children gather to observe and offer gestures of affirmation or personal strategies of checking the results of others.
Kirsty Liljegren: Ali appears self-assured to count in the direction they want to. Counting confidently and coming up with a different result of eight sticks. Another count with a clear display of one to one correspondence by Clancy gives the result of nine. We see that one to one correspondence is still developing in some children. What a tremendous challenge presented to the group to think together. Some counted eight, some counted nine. The children playing on the periphery are invited to join the think tank of stick counters.
Kirsty Liljegren: Annie quietly counts and when encouraged shares her calculation non-verbally with her fingers, smiling as she communicates. We also see a similar communication from Izzy. The group is offered a strategy to count together to solve this problem. They respond to the teacher's invitation to touch the sticks as they go. With momentum getting the better of them, adding confusion to the counting process. Despite the problem, we observe the enthusiasm and sustained shared thinking supported by the teacher.
Kirsty Liljegren: They are encouraged to persist through this problem of how many sticks there are. Perhaps the invitation to connect with the counting ritual in the morning meeting, has supported the children's continued engagement with the counting endeavor. In amongst the confusion, Ali communicates confidently "I got nine too". Adding the sticks to the basket and counting offers a new strategy to solve the problem and sets the children up for success.
Kirsty Liljegren: This teacher being close to their proximal zones of development. A theory of learning from Vygotsky that helps us understand this responsive practice. "We've got all of them", declares one child, sharing her knowledge of quantity.
Kirsty Liljegren: The children's satisfaction is evident in the smiles and enthusiastic exclamations of "nine" with their final successful count together. Did anyone notice the child who, throughout the experience connected physically with the teacher? Leaning in and participating quietly and confidently with what seemed to be the reassurance of this connection. What we can analyze in this example is sustained, shared thinking described in the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development framework:
Kirsty Liljegren: When two or more individuals work together in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, or evaluate an activity. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend understanding. You might like to reflect on the following questions: What do you notice about how the educator assesses the children's responses and adjusts her strategies to set the children up for success? What pedagogical strategies do you utilise as part of an assessment for learning otherwise known as formative assessment? Do you draw on the resources available such as the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework Practice Principle Guide Assessment for Learning and Development as a team to further your understanding of the integral role assessment plays in our practice?
Updated