As pupils progress into Second Level, they are developing a broader repertoire of strategies and are beginning to use these with increasing efficiency, accuracy and flexibility.

You may wish to use the supplementary Task 7 questions to get a better understanding of the range and use of strategies for addition and subtraction.

Second *

• If a pupil is placed at Second *, they will have solved all tasks up to Task 7 at least.  You may wish to ask the supplementary questions to get a broader picture.
• They can solve problems beyond 1000 and have an increasing range of strategies.
• They may not yet be using these strategies selectively yet.

Second **

• If a pupil is placed at Second **, they will be able to work across a wide range of whole numbers and will, in general, use strategies that are efficient based on the numbers they have been presented with.

Second ***

• A pupil at Second *** will be using a range of strategies with whole numbers efficiently.
• They extend their use of strategies to solving addition and subtraction problems with decimals (although may revert to less efficient strategies).

Third *

• A pupil at Third * will be using all the skills already mentioned as well as solving addition and subtraction problems involving fractions with related denominators.

If a pupil is assessed at Second *** or Third *, the following areas should also be checked through informal diagnostic questions within class.  Any gaps should be addressed to ensure pupils have a good depth of understanding across a range of areas.

• Solving multi-step word problems
• Understanding and application of order of operations
• Solving simple algebraic equations
• Extending addition and subtraction of positive whole numbers to working with negative whole numbers.

Activity:

The main training video, 7.1, as well as the supplementary video 5.1 could be viewed and discussed to get a better understanding of pupils working at these levels.