We’d love it if you stopped by and had a read through the new content for Collection 3 of the new NZCALNE on PathwaysAwarua.
You’ll find a plain-English introduction to the Learning Progressions. This includes a demonstration of how to map the big picture literacy and numeracy demands of your programme, as well as specific samples of your teaching materials.
You’ll need to register as a new tertiary educator, or just log in if you already have an account. Look for the NZCALNE (Voc) pathway.
You’re up to the third assessment task in the new and improved NZCALNE (Voc). Kai pai you…!
We’re working hard to get all new content for this and other modules live on Pathways Awarua, but until then you can find the first draft here.
The new Assessment 3 still focuses on mapping the demands of your programme using the Learning Progressions. However, the format is simpler and easier to use.
There are six short sections to complete in the new assessment task.
If you already know what you’re doing with mapping, please skip ahead to the assessment template. Email us if you don’t already have it. You can always come back and dip into these resources as you need to.
If you’re stuck, please reach out by email here: assess@alec.ac.nz or call Graeme on 0800-ALEC-1-2
If you know what you’re doing, please skip ahead to the assessment task and finish this off. If you want to walk through the process one last time with the measurement progression, please carry on!
1. Print out the Make Sense of Number strand.
Make sure you have the Measure and Interpret Shape and Space strand in front of you so you can refer to the details for each step. Sometimes, we’ll just refer to this as the Measurement strand.
For our purposes here, we’re just going to look at measurement. You can decide if the Shapes and Transformations, and Location Progressions are relevant. For now, we’re going to assume that they are not relevant.
The Measurement progression looks like this, but it will have descriptions of skills and knowledge in all of the steps. You can download the Measure and Interpret Shape and Space strand here if you need to.
2. Choose a specific sample task involving measurement from your teaching programme.
Choose some kind of teaching material that your learners have to work with, not NZQA unit standard descriptions.
It’s often a good idea to choose a task where your learners have to estimation and then use a measuring tool or measure something for a purpose.
Here are some examples of tasks that you could choose where your learners have to use measurement:
3. Have clear reasons for choosing the sample
In the assessment template, as with all of your samples, you’ll need to say why you chose to analyse this calculation or task. There are lots of reasons. Here are some:
4. Start your mapping with the strategy progressions
Refer to the Measurement progressions and then you shade in your own chart down to the relevant step.
This time, the best place to start mapping the measurement demands is at steps 2 / 3.
Step 1 is very basic. If your measurement task was to compare the length of two sticks and say which was bigger, you’d be at step 1. Most trades and vocational courses will have measurement demands from steps 2 / 3 up to step 6.
Here’s what you’ll see on the Measurement progression.
5. Use what you know about your own subject
Use your own knowledge of your training material or the measurement task to decide which step applies for each of the strategy progressions.
Here are some things to think about. Does the calculation require:
Remember that when we’re working out the demands of a measurement task or calculation, we are only interested in the task or calculation. As we mentioned earlier, we’ll get to what your learners can actually do later on when we look at diagnostic assessment.
If you work in trades or do any kind of vocational training, the measurements that your learners have to work with are probably at least at step 2 / 3 for basic measurement, at step 4 if they have to use tools like scales or tape measures, or if you use formulas most likely at steps 5 or 6.
We often find that in trades and vocational training that the measurement demands are quite high.
As always, if you’re not sure about what step, do this mapping together with a colleague.
6. Map the demands for measurement
If you’re working on paper, get a highlighter and shade down from the top until you’ve included the highest step that you identified for measurement.
You can download a chart and worksheet here for mapping your sample measurement or measurement related calculation. It’s exactly the same as section 3.6 of your assessment task. Print this out and you can use it as a rough draft and for notes.
Once you’ve mapped the measurement progression, you’ll end up with something like this:
7. Answer the questions and finish of the assessment task
Once you have mapped your measurement task visually, you need to be able to talk about your mapping means.
As with your other samples, you’ll need to answer a series of questions to show that you understand what you’ve just done.
These questions are in the assessment template and in the worksheet if you download it:
If you can map a sample measurement or measurement-related calculation and answer the questions, you can finish of this assessment and hand it in.
Make sure you keep your sample handy. You’ll need to scan it and upload it when you submit your completed assessment task.
If it’s a measurement task or activity that is not something you can easily scan, you can write down what learners have to do and add this to your responses in the template.
If it’s a practical activity you might be able to take some digital photos and upload those for us to see.
By now you might feel that you’re an old hand at mapping. Or at least, you might feel that you have an idea about how the process works. Here’s something to remember:
The only thing that might be new is that you’re using the progressions as a kind of lens to filter your judgements through.
If you know what you’re doing, just get on with the assessment task. If you’re not sure or you feel less confident about mapping numeracy then don’t worry. We’re going to go through it in detail next.
1. Print out the Make Sense of Number strand.
Make sure you have the Make Sense of Number strand in front of you so you can refer to the details for each step. Sometimes, we’ll just refer to this as the Number strand.
It looks like this, but it will have descriptions of skills and knowledge in all of the steps. You can download the Number strand here if you need to.
There are six progressions in this strand. The first three are about how to do things (strategies) and the second three about what you need to know to do those things (knowledge).
You only need to think about the first three when you map demands. What you need to know (the second three) will sit one step behind the highest step of the first three
2. Choose a specific sample calculation or task involving number work from your teaching programme.
Choose some kind of teaching material that your learners have to work with, not NZQA unit standard descriptions. Choose a task where your learners have to do a basic calculation or work with numbers in some way. This might include reading some material, but the focus should be on using basic maths.
Here are some examples of samples that you could choose where your learners have to use number skills:
3. Have clear reasons for choosing the sample
In the assessment template, as with all of your samples, you’ll need to say why you chose to analyse this calculation or task. There are lots of reasons. Here are some:
4. Start your mapping with the strategy progressions
At every stage, we refer to the relevant Strand charts and progressions and then you shade in your own chart down to the relevant step.
This time, the best place to start mapping the number demands is with the three strategy progressions on the left-hand side of the chart. The ones on the right are the knowledge progressions and we can leave those for now.
Unless you are teaching a very low level foundation class, the number demands for your programme are likely to be at step 3 or above. Steps 1 and 2 are very much developmental.
You’re the expert though. Remember: you know your subject. The framework is just a lens or tool to look at your programme.
Here’s what you’ll see in the number strategy progressions:
That’s an excellent question…! Partitioning is splitting numbers into parts, for example, by place value. Here’s an example.
Partitioning strategies are strategies that are based on splitting numbers into two or more parts and then recombining them in a different way. This is how people in the real world do maths. For example:
Writing out the explanation for this makes it sound more complicated than it is. But here have a think about this:
5. Use what you know about your own subject
Use your own knowledge of your training material or calculations to decide which step applies for each of the strategy progressions.
Here are some things to think about. Does the calculation require:
Keep in mind at all times that when we’re working out the demands of a task or calculation in this case, we are only interested in the task or calculation. We’ll get to what your learners can actually do later on.
If you work in trades or do any kind of vocational training, the calculations that you have to work with are probably at least at step 3 or 4 and most likely at steps 5 or 6.
As always, if you’re not sure about what step, do this mapping together with a colleague.
6. Map the demands for the three strategies progressions first
If you’re working on paper, get a highlighter and shade down from the top until you’ve included the highest step that you identified for each of Additive Strategies, Multiplicative Strategies, and Proportional Reasoning Strategies.
You can download a chart and worksheet here for mapping your own sample calculation on the Number strand. It’s exactly the same as section 3.5 of your assessment task. Print this out and you can use it as a rough draft and for notes.
Once you’ve mapped the three strategies progressions, you’ll end up with something like this:
7. Map your calculation against the rest of the progressions in the strand.
There’s a quick way to do this. It only works with this strand. But it goes like this:
So in our example above, the highest step mapped on the strategy side is step 6 for Additive Strategies. This means that we can map all of the knowledge progressions at step 5. Like this:
The reason we can do this is that the three strategy progressions require that all of the knowledge is place at the previous step.
In other words, you need to know things at step 5 in Place Value, for example, in order to do things at step 6 in Additive Strategies.
Once you have mapped your calculation visually, you need to be able to talk about your results and what they mean.
As with your literacy samples, you’ll need to answer a series of questions to show that you understand what you’ve just done.
These questions are in the assessment template and in the worksheet if you download it:
If you can map a sample calculation or other task involving numbers and answer the questions, you can move onto the next module.
Make sure you keep your sample handy, though. You’ll need to scan it and upload it when you submit your completed assessment task. If it’s a calculation, you can write out an example and scan this.
If you’ve got the hang of the mapping, feel free to skip ahead and get on with mapping the writing demands in Assessment 3. You’re up to section 3.4.
If you do skip ahead and you get stuck, you can always come back here and have a look in more detail.
Otherwise, we’re going to walk you through mapping writing demands for a sample from your programme. Here’s the most important thing:
1. Print out the Write to Communicate strand.
Make sure you have the Write to Communicate strand in front of you so you can refer to the details for each step. Sure you can have the PDF on your computer, but some things are just easier to refer to in print.
It looks like this, but it will have descriptions of skills and knowledge in all of the steps. You can Write to Communicate Strand Chart if you need to.
2. Choose a specific sample writing text or task from your teaching programme.
Choose some kind of teaching material that your learners have to work with, not NZQA unit standard descriptions. Choose a task where your learners have to write. This might include reading, but the focus should be writing.
Here are some examples of samples that you could choose where your learners have to write:
3. Have clear reasons for choosing the sample
In the assessment template, you’ll need to say why you chose the sample. There are lots of reasons. Here are some:
4. Start your mapping with the Vocabulary progression
Like we said earlier, what you’re going to do at every stage is refer to the Strand charts and then shade in your own chart down to the relevant step.
And as with the work that you did mapping reading, we’re going to start with the vocabulary progression here as well.
For trades or employment focused training, it’s safe to start at around step 4/5 for writing. Look at the description for vocabulary at step 4/5.
You’ll see the following:
“… have a specialised writing vocabulary related to a range of topics”.
Vocabulary – Most adults will be able to
| Koru / step 1 | use a range of everyday, highly familiar words and phrases to write simple texts. |
| Koru / step 2 | have a writing vocabulary that is adequate for communicating meaning in everyday writing tasks |
| Koru / step 3 | have an extended writing vocabulary related to their personal, work and community tasks |
| Koru / step 4 – 5 | have a specialised writing vocabulary related to a range of topics |
| Koru / step 6 | Have an extensive writing vocabulary of everyday and specialised words that relate to a wide range of topics and contexts |
5. Use what you know about your own subject
Use your own knowledge of your training material or work to decide whether this applies. In other words:
If your answer was no, that is, there are no specialised words, then you need to drop back to step 3 or 2 and see if either of those steps fits better. Step 3 for vocabulary means there are no academic words and no specialised or technical words.
If you answered yes, then you should push ahead to step 6 and see if the answer is still yes to the description there.
If you work in trades, your material is probably at least at step 3 and most likely at step 4/5.
It might be the case that there is not very much writing in your programme. If this is true, then have a look at what writing there is, and in particular look at assessment tasks that require writing.
If it’s work-related, but you don’t need to see specialised terminology then it’s going to be step 3. If you want your learners to write using the jargon of your trade, then it’s specialised and that makes it step 4 / 5.
As we said last time, if you’re not sure about what step, this process works well if you do it together with a colleague who knows what you know about what you teach or train.
6. Map the demands on paper first
If you’re working on paper, get a highlighter and shade down from the top until you’ve included the highest step that you identified for vocabulary. You’ll end up with something like this:
Now, we’ve mapped the vocabulary demands for writing at steps 4 / 5.
DOWNLOAD Writing Demands Worksheet for mapping your own writing sample. It’s exactly the same as section 3.4 of your assessment task. Print this out and you can use it as a rough draft and for notes.
7. Map your writing sample against the rest of the progressions in the strand.
Once you’ve mapped vocabulary, you can move on to the other progressions. The system is the same as what you did before. For each relevant progression:
If a progression is not relevant you can skip it. But make sure you have a reason for this as your tutor or assessor may ask you.
When you’ve mapped all of the relevant writing progressions for your sample, you might end up with something similar to this:
Once again, this is mapping in visual terms. You need to be able to talk about your results and what they mean.
As with each of your samples, you’ll need to answer a series of questions to show that you understand what you’ve just done.
These questions are in the assessment template and in the worksheet if you download it:
As before, there are prompts in the template to help you answer the questions. Feel free to ignore them, but they are there to help you get started writing your answers and guide you in the right direction.
If you can map a sample writing text and answer the questions, you can move onto the next module.
Make sure you keep your sample handy, though. You’ll need to scan it and upload it when you submit your completed assessment task.
We are going to be working with the Read with Understanding strand. Now… let’s go through it slowly. If you are already an experienced mapper, please skip ahead to the assessment task.
1. Print out the Read with Understanding strand.
Make sure you have the Read with Understanding strand in front of you so you can refer to the details for each step.
It looks like this, but it will have descriptions of skills and knowledge in all of the steps. You can Download the Read with Understanding Strand Chart if you need to.
Read with Understanding
2. Choose a specific sample reading text or task from your teaching programme.
Choose some kind of teaching material that your learners have to work with, not NZQA unit standard descriptions.
Here are some examples of samples that you could choose:
3. Have clear reasons for choosing the sample
In the assessment template, you’ll need to say why you chose the sample. There are lots of reasons. Here are some:
4. Start your mapping with the Vocabulary progression
In a nutshell, what you’re going to do at every stage is refer to the Strand charts and then shade in your own chart down to the relevant step.
We’re going to practice with the vocabulary progression. This is the easiest place to start.
For most training that has a technical aspect, like trades or employment focused training, it’s safe to start at around step 4/5 for reading. Look at the description for vocabulary at step 4/5.
You’ll see the following:
“… a reading vocabulary that includes some general academic
words and some specialised words”.
| Vocabulary | Most adults will be able to |
| Koru / step 1 | have a reading vocabulary of everyday words, signs and symbols. |
| Koru / step 2 | have a reading vocabulary of everyday words that includes some compound words. |
| Koru / step 3 | have a reading vocabulary of everyday words and some less common words, acronyms and abbreviations. |
| Koru / step 4 – 5 | have a reading vocabulary that includes some general academic words and some specialised words. |
| Koru / step 6 | have a large reading vocabulary that includes general academic words and specialised words and terms. |
5. Use what you know about your own subject
At this point, you need to use your own knowledge of your training material or work to decide whether this applies. In other words:
If your answer was no, then you need to drop back to step 3 and see if that fits better. Step 3 for vocabulary means there are no academic words and no specialised or technical words.
If you answered yes, then you should push ahead to step 6 and see if the answer is still yes to the description there.
Step 6 applies to vocabulary where you expect your learners to be working with a large bank of academic and specialised or technical words.
If you work in trades, your material is probably at least at steps 4/5 or 6 for vocabulary.
If you have a lot of technical jargon to deal with then go with step 6. If there’s just a bit, but it’s not too much then go with steps 4/5, which is a combined step.
If you’re not sure about what step, this process works well if you do it together with a colleague who knows what you know about what you teach or train.
6. Map the demands on paper first
If you’re working on paper, get a highlighter and shade down from the top until you’ve included the highest step that you identified for vocabulary. You’ll end up with something like this:
This is mapping. Above, we’ve mapped the vocabulary demands for reading at steps 4 / 5.
You can download a chart and worksheet here for mapping your own reading sample. It’s exactly the same as section 3.3 of your assessment task. Print this out and you can use it as a rough draft and for notes.
7. Map your reading sample against the rest of the progressions in the strand.
Once you’ve mapped vocabulary, you can move on to Decoding and then other progressions. The system is the same. For each relevant progression:
If a progression is not relevant you can skip it. But make sure you have a reason for this as your tutor or assessor may ask you.
There is also some subjective judgement involved. But also, you are the expert here. You know your own content. In the case of vocabulary, it’s easy… If you see technical jargon, you can’t map it at step 3. It has to be above this.
Also, many of the skills and knowledge required at steps 1 and 2 is very developmental. For trades and most courses, you’re going to be mapping at step 3 and above.
In fact, if you are a trades tutor, you may find that much of your course is at step 5 and 6.
When you’ve mapped all of the relevant reading progressions for your sample, you might end up with something like this:
This is mapping in visual terms. From here you need to be able to talk about your results and what they mean.
When you complete the assessment task, you’ll need to answer a series of questions to show that you know what you’ve just done.
These questions are in the assessment template and in the worksheet if you download it. They’re also here below:
In the template, there are prompts to help you answer the questions. Feel free to ignore them if you like. But they are there to help you get started writing your answers and guide you in the right direction.
If you can map a sample reading text and answer the questions above, you can move onto the next module. Keep your sample handy, though. You’ll need to scan it and upload it when you submit your finished assessment task.
In the last two modules, you learned how to map your teaching programme to the strands and progressions of the Learning Progressions.
Next, we’ll be looking at how you map some specific samples of your teaching materials or other content to the progressions and steps of the Learning Progressions.
In the modules that follow, you’ll learn how to map specific demands for a sample of:
This will carry you through the rest of Assessment 3. By now you might have already downloaded the assessment template and made a start.
If you haven’t we’d encourage you to skip ahead and download the template. This means you can dip in and out of these modules as you need to.
We also suggest that you work your way through each module that follows but also refer back the material for reference or clarification.
