An update on yesterday's quiz

I received a few requests this morning to clarify question 1 on yesterday's Math quiz. We've reviewed it as part of today's Math lesson, but I wanted to do so here as well. 

The pattern rule for question 1 was "add 3, subtract 1". Some children thought this meant to simply "add two". The pattern started at 4 and students were asked to fill in the next six terms.  The answer was:  4,7,6,9,8,11,10. 


We've been talking about patterns where two attributes change (e.g. blue circle, red square-changing attributes are colour and shape).  


One of the learning goals of this unit is to apply this to numerical patterns as well. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog post, I took a bit of a leap with that question, to see if students could transfer this skill from shapes to numbers.  Some students were able to make this transfer of skills and others were not as successful as they would like to be. We looked at this concept specifically in our lesson today and I'm sure after a few more experiences and further instruction, my students will have it down pat! 

I also want to remind families that yesterday's quiz will not count toward students' final unit grade, but it was purposeful in that it helped me to inform and direct my instruction.  


Update:  
I reviewed the quiz again with the boys and girls this morning (we had also reviewed it yesterday right after they received it back), along with a few more numerical patterns and I feel very confident that everyone is on track for success. 
We also had another, very similar quiz and everyone did very well!  We talked about how in Grades 4 and 5, this is what numerical patterns will look like, only students will have to identify the pattern rule and extend it as well.