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Analysis of the Interviews
Matthews accurate comparison and categorization of heavy,
light, heaviest and lightest in question one, What do you
notice? demonstrates that he has an awareness of the attributes of
mass and its descriptive language. His accurate estimate by hefting
and correct use of the balance scales also indicates that he is able
to compare, order and match objects by mass. These skills are listed
as points of growth thirty-nine and forty-two respectively in the
Measurement section of the Mathematics Online Interview. In
response to question two, Matthew demonstrated that he has
reached points of growth forty-four and forty-seven, meaning he is
able to use informal units to estimate and measure mass, as well as
use uniform units appropriately to quantify mass, and to assign
number and unit to the measure. Matthew successful compared a
number of items to a one kilogram weight as part of question three,
showing he is able to use formal units for estimating mass
accurately. However, in question four, Matthew was unable to
accurately measure mass using formal units. So while he may be
approaching point of growth fifty-one, he has not yet achieved this.
As Matthew was unable to measure mass using standard units, this
is where we ended our interview. It is interesting to note after
speaking to Matthews classroom teacher, I found that Matthew had
not yet been explicitly taught to measure mass using formal units.
When considering the Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP)
framework, Matthews interview indicates that he has reached
growth point three, and can quantify mass accurately, using units
and attending to measurement principles (Clarke et al, 2002). When
looking at the Australian Curriculum for Mathematics, it is clear that
Matthew has moved beyond the expectation for Year One students
to be able to Measure and compare the lengths and capacities of
pairs of objects using uniform informal units and can competently
Compare masses of objects using balance scales as described in

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the standards for Year Two (Australian Curriculum Assessment and
Reporting Authority, 2012).
Elenis accurate comparison and categorization of heavy and
light in question one, What do you notice? demonstrates that
she has an awareness of the attributes of mass and its descriptive
language. Her accurate estimate by hefting and correct use of the
balance scales also indicates that she is able to compare, order and
match objects by mass. These skills are listed as points of growth
thirty-nine and forty-two respectively in the Measurement section of
the Mathematics Online Interview. In response to question two, Eleni
demonstrated that she has reached points of growth forty-four and
forty-seven, meaning she is able to use informal units to estimate
and measure mass, as well as use uniform units appropriately to
quantify mass, and to assign number and unit to the measure. Eleni
successful compared a number of items to a one kilogram weight as
part of question three, showing she is able to use formal units for
estimating mass accurately. It was interesting to note that each time
Eleni needed to be prompted to use the balance scales, as her
immediate response to determine which item weighed more was to
make an estimation by hefting. Similarly to Matthew, Eleni was
unable to accurately measure mass using formal units. So while she
may also be approaching point of growth fifty-one, she is yet to
achieve this. Again, as Eleni was unable to measure mass using
standard units, this is where we ended our interview. Eleni was from
the same class as Matthew and so also had not yet been explicitly
taught to measure mass using formal units. I was surprised to find
both interviews ended in the same place, with such similar results,
as the students were selected at random, with my only stipulation
being that I interviewed one student from Year One and the other
from Year Two. When we refer back to the Australian Curriculum for
Mathematics, Eleni is at the expected standard for Year Two, being
able to successfully Compare masses of objects using balance

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scales as described (Australian Curriculum Assessment and
Reporting Authority, 2012). As already stated in the analysis for
Matthews interview, the successful completion of all questions up
to and including question three indicate that Eleni has also reached
growth point three in the ENRP framework, and can quantify mass
accurately, using units and attending to measurement principles
(Clarke et al, 2002).
When comparing the Investigating Early Concepts of Mass
(Interview 2) that I carried out to the current Mass section of the
Mathematics online interview, the first thing that struck me was the
plethora of materials required. It seems to me that this is a possible
limitation of the interview, as it took considerable time and
resources to procure all of the necessary items, many of which I
noted were not supplied or readily accessible in my placement
school. I did think the inclusion of the second task in question two
involving the use of Unifix as uniform informal units of measure was
particularly helpful, as the successful completion of this task clearly
shows whether students have reached point of growth forty-seven
(using uniform units appropriately to quantify mass, and to assign
number and unit to the measure). Unfortunately due to the
responses of both students, I was not able to progress to the later
questions in the interview, however, I feel that my results may not
have been reliable, as I was not able to obtain a set of kitchen
scales with a vertical scale, and using the set I had access to with a
round scale to test some of the quantities of rice and pasta, I could
see how it could be confusing for students who are developing their
concepts of mass to make good connections between the mass of
the object to be weighed and the round scale.
Activities for Mathematical Development

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As the responses from both my students were so similar, I have
selected two tasks to develop their understanding of formal units of
measure, while still catering to the needs of a whole class. Both
tasks are sourced from the paper Investigating young childrens
learning of mass measurement by Cheeseman, McDonough &
Ferguson (2013).
The first task is Post Office Parcels. Students are told a story about
going to the post office to mail a parcel to a friend. At the Post Office
the parcel had to be weighed to see how heavy it was, as heavier
parcels cost more to deliver. The teacher asks the students if they
have heard the word gram and what they think it might mean.
Following the students discussion, the teacher shows them a
centicube and explains that a centicube weighs one gram. The
teacher then shows a stick of ten centicubes and establishes that
this weighs ten grams. The teacher models the measuring of one
parcel as an example, recording the mass on a post it note to be
stuck to the parcel. Students are then given the task of measuring
the mass of at least two of a range of envelopes and packages in
the post office, working in pairs. At the conclusion of the activity,
the teacher will chose students to share their findings and perhaps
cross check some of the weights if multiple partnerships have
weighed the same parcel. In this time the parcels could also be
ordered according to their post it note weights. I chose this task as I
thought the post office was a fantastic numeracy context for using
standard units of measure, and the use of centicubes would be a
great progression from the Unifix cubes the students I interviewed
were competent in using as a way to measure mass. The
assessment for this task could include the observation of the
accuracy of the students weighing skills and examining if they can
measure to the nearest gram, and can the students explain what
they are doing and why?

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The second task that I selected is Weighing Stations. This task
allows students to choose from a range of experiences, set up at six
different stations. The stations are as follows:
1. Kitchen Cupboard: Investigate the weights of kitchen
items. Put some of these in a shopping bag. Record your
estimate of the total mass of the bag. Check using
bathroom or kitchen scales. Label the bag with the
actual mass.
2. Post office: Estimate the mass of parcels by hefting.
Weigh and label them.
3. One potato, two potato: Choose five potatoes. Use
hefting to put them in order from heaviest to lightest.
Can you find out if you were right?
4. Fruit shop with teddies: Investigate the masses of the
fruits and vegetables. Heft and order them from
heaviest to lightest. Check by weighing with teddies.
5. Fruit shop with grams: Investigate the masses of the
fruits and vegetables. Estimate by hefting then weigh
them using standard weights or centicubes.
6. One hundred gram baggies: Choose one material and
create a bag that weighs one hundred grams. (Materials
may include rice, chick peas, lima beans, metal
washers, teddies)
I felt this lesson was particularly suited to the students that I
interviewed, as they were already familiar and comfortable with a
play based learning approach, and this task provides opportunity to
work individually or in pairs or groups, and to persist with a task for
as long as they chose to. The assessment for this task would again
be observation based, however teachers could ask students to
explain what they were doing and why they were doing it at
particular stations, and they could also invite students to share their
thinking and their discoveries with the class. Students could also be
given the opportunity to draw or write about their findings.

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Bibliography
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2012).
Australian curriculum: Mathematics. Retrieved 09 06, 2015,
from
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Mathematics/Curriculu
m/F-10.
Cheeseman, J., McDonough, A., & Ferguson, S. (2014). Investigating
young childrens learning of mass measurement .
Mathematics Education Research Journal , 26 (2), 131-150.
Clarke, D. M., Cheeseman, J., Gervasoni, A., Gronn, D., Horne, M., &
McDonough, A. (2002). Early numeracy research project final
report. Melbourne: Mathematics Teaching and Learning
Centre, Australian Catholic University.

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