Extending Mathematical Understandings

Extending Mathematical Understandings is a Maths Intervention program offered to grade one students.

At the beginning of the year all grade one students are assessed using the Early Years Numeracy Interview. Students who need some extra assistance are indentified and invited to participate in the program. The students are removed from the classroom each day for 30 minutes. They work with two other students and a specially trained teacher. An individual learning plan and a series of lessons is developed for each student.

The research upon which the program is based was conducted by Dr Ann Gervasoni at the Australian Catholic University and you can obtain further more detailed information from the websites below. There is a strong emphasis on assisting the students to develop some basic skills and knowledge in the areas of counting and place value, addition and subtraction strategies and multiplication and division strategies. The students are encouraged to develop a range of mathematical strategies to use and to make choices about the most efficient strategies to use in a particular situation. Reflection and home activities are an integral part of the program.