Contents
- Make the assessment serve a teaching decision
- Plan the shared assessment together
- Copy-ready place-value assessment
- Matching answer and interpretation guide
- Practise interpreting pupil responses
- Moderate ambiguous responses without guessing
- Choose next teaching steps from the response
- Reusable planning and recording templates
- Resources for the next planning meeting
- Related resources
Make the assessment serve a teaching decision
Start with one mathematical idea you want to understand better, not a whole-topic test. Agree what to ask, what different responses would show and what you will teach next. The place-value task below gives you a shared starting point for that conversation.
MoEdu-SAIL describes formative assessment as a process of eliciting, interpreting and using evidence to make decisions about next steps in instruction. Its common formative assessment module includes clarifying learning targets and success criteria, developing assessments, and interpreting and acting on evidence. Common Formative Assessment — MoEdu-SAIL
Use the assessment, interpretation criteria and protocols here as adaptable teaching tools, not as a validated test or a basis for a general attainment label.
Plan the shared assessment together
1. Agree one focus. For this assessment, use: “We want to find out how pupils connect the digits in a two-digit number with tens and ones.” Keep flexible partitioning as a separately recorded extension rather than a requirement for showing the core focus.
This focus connects with England’s Year 2 mathematics programme of study, which includes recognising the place value of each digit in a two-digit number and representing numbers in different ways. Its non-statutory guidance also includes partitioning numbers in different ways. National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study
2. Write the teaching decision before choosing questions. For example: “After this check, will we revisit the value of a bundle of ten, connect representations to written digits, or explore different partitions of the same number?” Select the task because it can inform those choices.
3. Agree shared assessment criteria. Use three separate strands:
D — Digit value: identifies the value of each digit, not just its name.
R — Representation: connects a written number to the corresponding tens and ones.
E — Equivalent partitioning: explains how different combinations of tens and ones can represent the same total.
For each strand, record “shown”, “not yet shown” or “unclear”, with the response that supports your judgement. Do not turn these into a single total score.
4. Agree prompts and conditions. Use the same initial wording, number choices and material options across classes. Decide whether pupils will respond orally, in writing, by drawing or with objects. For this version, offer bundles of ten sticks and loose sticks; check that pupils know what each bundle represents. Record the response mode and any adult help rather than treating all responses as if they were produced under identical conditions.
5. Rehearse interpretation before using the task. Each colleague should independently interpret the hypothetical responses below, then compare judgements. Agree what would count as evidence for each strand and which follow-up questions are allowed. Keep clarification separate from teaching: record the initial response before giving explanations or demonstrations.
6. Set the review and recheck. Choose when you will bring responses together, who will record decisions and when pupils will try a related prompt after teaching. Plan to discuss examples that show different reasoning, including responses that do not fit your first interpretation.
Copy-ready place-value assessment
Prepare bundles of ten sticks, loose sticks, paper and pencils. Read prompts aloud if that is part of your agreed approach. Let pupils explain through speech, drawings or objects. Record their words and actions, including any clarification you provide. Questions 1–3 address the core focus; record Question 4 separately as an extension.
The classroom examples and pupil responses below are hypothetical. Place-value check
Name: ____________________ Date: ____________________
1. Look at 34.
What is the value of the digit 3?
What is the value of the digit 4?
Explain or show what you mean.
2. Make 34 using bundles of ten sticks and loose sticks, or draw it.
Show where you can see the 3 in 34.
Show where you can see the 4 in 34.
3. Make or draw 43.
How is it different from 34?
Explain what each digit represents in each number.
4. Explore another way.
Someone makes a number using 2 tens and 14 ones.
Is that the same total as 34, or a different total?
Show or explain how you know.
Use these neutral clarification prompts if needed:
“Tell me about what you have made.”
“Show me which part you mean.”
“What does this bundle represent?”
“How did you decide?”
Record the exact prompt used. If you demonstrate an exchange or tell the pupil a digit’s value, mark the later response as supported rather than independent.
Matching answer and interpretation guide
Question 1 — Digit value
The 3 has a value of 30: three tens. The 4 has a value of 4: four ones.
Accept explanations using words, objects or drawings. “Three tens” identifies the value even without the word “thirty”. “Three” alone needs clarification: the pupil may be naming the digit rather than describing its value.
Question 2 — Connecting digits and representations
A conventional representation is three bundles of ten and four loose sticks. The pupil should connect the digit 3 to the three tens and the digit 4 to the four ones.
A drawing of 34 individual marks shows the total but does not, by itself, show the tens-and-ones connection. Ask the pupil to show where the tens are. Do not mark an accurate count as incorrect simply because the pupil counted in ones.
Question 3 — Distinguishing digit positions
43 is four tens and three ones; 34 is three tens and four ones. The same digits have different values because they occupy different positions.
“43 is bigger” is true, but does not yet answer what each digit represents. Ask the pupil to point to the tens and ones in each model.
Question 4 — Equivalent partitioning
The totals are the same: 2 tens and 14 ones make 20 + 14, which is 34. Regrouping ten of the loose ones makes another ten, leaving three tens and four ones.
An explanation through regrouping is sufficient; a written equation is not required. A correct “same” without a demonstration or explanation leaves the reasoning unclear.
Practise interpreting pupil responses
Response A: “The 3 is three,” followed by pointing to three bundles and saying, “Each one is ten.”
Interpretation: The first phrase is ambiguous, but the explanation identifies three tens. Record the words and model as evidence for D and R rather than judging only the initial phrase.
Response B: The pupil makes three bundles and four loose sticks, then touches and counts every stick to check the total.
Interpretation: Counting in ones is a valid checking strategy. If the pupil also connects the bundles and loose sticks to the digits, record that evidence for R. If not, ask where the 3 and 4 are represented; do not infer a misconception from the counting strategy alone.
Response C: The pupil writes “30” for the value of the 3 but makes four bundles and three loose sticks for 34.
Interpretation: The written answer and model conflict. Keep both observations. Ask the pupil to read the number and explain the model before deciding whether the issue concerns digit position, recording or a momentary slip.
Response D: “Two tens and fourteen ones cannot be 34 because 34 has three tens.”
Interpretation: The pupil describes the conventional partition but has not yet shown recognition of the alternative partition. Follow up by asking for the total of the two tens and fourteen ones. Do not use this extension response to erase successful evidence from Questions 1–3.
Response E: The pupil says the two representations are the same, then moves ten loose sticks together and says, “Those can be another ten.”
Interpretation: The exchange provides evidence for E. Record the action as well as the spoken answer.
Moderate ambiguous responses without guessing
Bring the shared criteria, prompt sheet and a small selection of responses: clear examples, contrasting examples and ambiguous ones. Include the materials used or a description of them, relevant pupil speech and any adult prompts. Choose a recorder and begin with one response that everyone will consider independently.
Use this teacher moderation sequence:
1. Observe independently. Write what the pupil said, wrote or did, without adding an explanation of why.
2. Judge each relevant strand. Choose “shown”, “not yet shown” or “unclear” and identify the exact evidence.
3. Compare interpretations. Each colleague explains which part of the response supports their judgement.
4. Test alternatives. Ask, “What other explanation could fit this response?” and “Did an adult prompt change what the pupil showed?”
5. Resolve or investigate. Agree an interpretation where the evidence permits it; otherwise retain “unclear” and choose a follow-up prompt.
6. Record the teaching action and recheck. Name the task, who will provide it and what evidence you will look for next.
A short written response cannot settle every interpretation. Where colleagues disagree because essential evidence is missing, do not force agreement or average their judgements. Record the uncertainty and ask a targeted follow-up question.
Example moderation record
Observed evidence: Pupil wrote “3” for the value of the 3 in 34. No explanation was recorded.
Initial interpretations: Digit naming; or shorthand for three tens.
Agreed judgement: D unclear.
Follow-up prompt: “Show what the 3 represents using these sticks.”
Teaching decision: Await the explanation before choosing a digit-value task.
Recording note: Keep the follow-up response separate from the initial response.
At the end, update the interpretation guide with any agreed clarification. For example: “A response of ‘three’ alone is unclear; an accompanying model or explanation of three tens can show digit value.” Keep the original response visible alongside the agreed judgement so colleagues can revisit the reasoning.
Choose next teaching steps from the response
Use the rows below as a response-to-teaching decision table. Each row connects an observed response with a follow-up prompt, a possible teaching task and a recheck. Choose provisionally, then revise the choice if the pupil’s explanation changes your interpretation.
Observed response: Names the digits but gives no values.
Follow-up prompt: “Show what each digit represents in 34.”
If the gap is confirmed, teach: Match a written number to bundles and loose sticks; ask the pupil to point between each digit and its represented quantity.
Recheck: Use 52 and ask for the value of each digit.
Observed response: Counts the total accurately in ones, but does not identify tens.
Follow-up prompt: “Can you show a group of ten? How many groups of ten are here?”
If the gap is confirmed, teach: Bundle loose sticks into tens, count the groups and leftovers, then connect the representation to its numeral.
Recheck: Ask the pupil to make 26 and show what the 2 represents.
Observed response: Exchanges the tens and ones when making a number.
Follow-up prompt: “Read this number, then tell me about each part of your model.”
If the gap is confirmed, teach: Build 25 and 52 side by side. Match each digit to the corresponding tens or ones and describe what changes.
Recheck: Build and explain 36 and 63.
Observed response: Correct written digit values, but a conflicting model.
Follow-up prompt: “Show how your model matches what you wrote.”
If the gap is confirmed, teach: Move between a number card, a tens-and-ones model and a spoken explanation, checking that all three match.
Recheck: Ask for an independently made model of 42 and an explanation of each digit.
Observed response: Explains the conventional tens-and-ones partition but rejects 2 tens and 14 ones as 34.
Follow-up prompt: “What total do these two tens and fourteen ones make?”
If the gap is confirmed, teach: Build three tens and four ones, unbundle one ten and compare the total before and after.
Recheck: Ask whether 4 tens and 12 ones represent 52, and request a demonstration.
Observed response: Explains both the conventional and alternative partition.
Follow-up prompt: “Can you find another way to make the same total?”
Teaching task: Explore several tens-and-ones partitions of 46 and explain the exchanges between them.
Recheck: Ask for two representations of 57 and an explanation of why their totals match.
Reusable planning and recording templates
Shared-assessment planning template
Team and date:
Mathematical focus:
Teaching decision this assessment will inform:
Core criteria:
Extension criteria, if any:
Exact initial prompts:
Materials and response modes:
Permitted clarification prompts:
How adult support will be recorded:
Evidence to retain:
Moderation date and recorder:
Planned follow-up and recheck:
Pupil evidence record
Pupil identifier:
Date and task/question:
Response mode and materials:
Exact words, written response or observed action:
Adult prompt or support:
D — Digit value: shown / not yet shown / unclear
R — Representation: shown / not yet shown / unclear
E — Equivalent partitioning: shown / not yet shown / unclear / not assessed
Evidence supporting each judgement:
Provisional interpretation:
Alternative explanation to consider:
Follow-up prompt:
Agreed next teaching task:
Recheck date, prompt and response:
Team moderation and action record
Response discussed:
Initial judgements and reasons:
Points of agreement:
Unresolved question:
Agreed interpretation, or “unclear”:
Clarification added to shared criteria:
Follow-up evidence needed:
Teaching action and responsible teacher:
Review date:
What the recheck showed:
Decision to continue, adapt or move on:
Use the records to organise temporary teaching groups around a specific need, such as connecting digits to a model or exploring an exchange. After the recheck, reconsider membership from the new evidence rather than keeping the original group labels.
Resources for the next planning meeting
For further team planning, MoEdu-SAIL’s Common Formative Assessment module includes sections on clarifying learning, eliciting evidence and feedback, with participant handout packets for each part. Common Formative Assessment — MoEdu-SAIL
For place-value teaching, NCETM’s “Addition and subtraction: two-digit numbers and multiples of ten” materials include the teaching point that two-digit numbers can be partitioned in different ways, with Teacher Guide and Representations downloads. Addition and subtraction: two-digit numbers and multiples of ten — NCETM
NCETM’s Year 2 curriculum map also lists a downloadable collection of assessment questions arranged by ready-to-progress criteria. Year 2 curriculum map — NCETM
Before adopting another question, apply the same planning test: What precise idea will it reveal, how will colleagues interpret the response, and which teaching decision could change as a result?
