Learning experiences and assessment opportunities

Expected Result (adapted from Mathematics K–6 Sample Units of Work p 103)

• Emma is pre-taught to articulate mathematics-specific language, incorporating targeted speech sounds (eg fifty-fifty) by the specialist teacher for hearing

Part A
The teacher says, ‘What are the possible outcomes when I toss this coin?’

Students give their responses and the teacher explains that ‘When I toss one coin there are two possible outcomes, “heads” or “tails” . I have one chance in two of getting “heads” and I have one chance in two of getting “tails”. This is an equal chance of getting “heads” or “tails”. There are different ways of saying “equal chance”. I can also say “one chance in two”, “equally likely” or “a fifty-fifty chance”.’

The teacher models coin-tossing a number of times, using the target language and demonstrating the use of tally marks to record the results.

Possible questions include:

• What outcomes can occur when a coin is tossed once?
• What is the likelihood of tossing ‘tails’ in a single toss?
• What chance is there of tossing ‘heads’ in a single toss?
• What is a ‘fifty-fifty’ chance?
  

• the teacher wears the microphone for the FM transmitter
• the teacher pauses after each sentence to give Emma sufficient time to process the information

The students, in pairs, predict the outcome of tossing a coin and then toss the coin, telling the teacher their prediction and whether they obtained ‘heads’ or ‘tails’. The teacher, using tally marks, records the students’ predictions and results in a table. The teacher graphs the results using either a picture graph or column graph.

• Emma’s partner wears the microphone for the FM transmitter
• Emma is positioned so that she can see her partner and the teacher

Part B
Students are asked to predict the result of a number of tosses of a coin. They use tally marks to record the outcomes in a table, and graph the results. The teacher uses mathematics-specific language, relevant to Chance, during questioning.

Possible questions include:

• How many ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ do you expect to get in two tosses?
• Did the expected result and the actual result match?
• Which outcome, ‘heads’ and ‘tails’, is more likely?

Students are encouraged to suggest how the experiment could be improved and implement their plan. This activity could be extended to tossing two coins.

• articulation of mathematics–specific language is pre-taught to Emma by the specialist teacher for hearing, eg certain

Part A
The teacher writes the headings ‘Certain’ and ‘Uncertain’ on the board. The teacher explains that ‘certain’ means the same as ‘sure to happen’ or ‘will happen’, and that ‘Uncertain’ means the same as ‘not sure to happen’ .

The students’ understanding of ‘certain’ and ‘uncertain’ is developed using simple pictures. The teacher questions the students about each picture and places each picture under the correct heading, repeating the explanation.

• the teacher wears the microphone for the FM transmitter
• the teacher links new language to familiar language for Emma

Part B
The students write the headings ‘Certain’ and ‘Uncertain’ on a sheet of paper. In pairs, they are asked to list under the headings things that they think are ‘certain’ and things that they think are ‘Uncertain’ today at school. Students discuss their findings.

Extension: Students devise their own rating scale using the language of chance.

• Emma’s partner wears the microphone for the FM transmitter