Moderator's Newsletter - Mathematics

July 2009

From the Moderator

Introduction

This Newsletter focuses on

• Level 3 internally assessed statistics and modelling achievement standards
• Assessment of unit standards
• The National Moderator's Report
• Moderation Best Practice workshops
• Teacher selected materials
• Unit standard 5228: Take measurements and use calculations to solve measurement problems
• Unit standard 8489: Solve problems which require calculation with whole numbers

Level 3 internally assessed statistics and modelling achievement standards

A set of notes for each of the three internally assessed level three statistics and modelling standards has been published. These notes have been written to assist teachers to interpret the requirements of these standards.

Assessment of Unit Standards

Clarification documentations about the assessment of the more commonly used mathematics unit standards have been published.

The National Moderator's Report

The 2008 National Moderator's Report has been published. As well as clarifying key issues related to the assessment of internally assessed standards it collates relevant information from previous years' reports.

Moderation Best Practice workshops

These workshops are being offered in the October school holidays and the first week of exams in November. The focus of them is to clarify Excellence requirements for achievement standards 90149 and 90641 and also to present the information relating to the assessment of 90288. The workshops have been well received and teachers are encouraged to attend them. Application details can be obtained from your school's Principal's Nominee.

Teacher-selected materials

A reminder that for any standard that has been selected for moderation, teachers are able to include up to four additional scripts for the submitted task. When submitting these scripts teachers need to complete the relevant section of the secondary moderation cover sheet and include a specific question relating to the scripts for which clarification is sought. Specific questions concerning the randomly-selected tasks which have been submitted could also be asked.

US5228 Version 4: Take measurements and use calculations to solve measurement problems

A number of issues continue to arise with the assessing of this standard. The following outlines expectations for this standard:

Element one

• A list of formulae should be supplied.
• Students select what measurements they need to take and what formulae to use.
• Students must use their own measurements in the calculations.
• Shapes for area calculations should be more difficult than just a rectangle.
• Students are expected to know that units are part of the answer in measurement. It is not acceptable to instruct them to include units with their answers or to give the units in the task.
• An acceptable range of measurements and answers need to be included in the schedule.

Element two

• A calculation of time is required. The calculation must involve base 60 knowledge. It is more than reading times from clocks and determining the difference between them.

US8489 Version 3: Solve problems which require calculation with whole numbers

• Some issues have arisen relating to the level of difficulty of problems. The following outlines expectations for this standard. Calculators are not allowed.
• Problems will be questions in text format that involve one step of calculation to solve.
• There will be only one operation involved in each question.
• The four operations should be spread in mixed order throughout the task.
• Addition and subtraction of two whole numbers of 2 or 3 digits.
• Multiplication and division by a 1 digit number.
• For multiplication it must be a minimum of a two digit number by a one digit number so 4 x 7 is not acceptable.
• Multiplication and division calculations need to go beyond the known multiplication and division facts.

Last updated: 21 July 2009