Additive reasoning

Self-audit questions for a teacher to assess confidence in the teaching of additive reasoning in KS1 and KS2

Primary KS1 KS2

Mastery PD Materials

A secure understanding of additive reasoning supports pupils in taking their first steps in calculation. This page contains links to seven ‘question documents,’ each helping teachers to assess their confidence in a specific aspect of this area of maths.

All question documents for this area are available as a single zip file download after the individual questions. At the bottom of this page you can find a series of short videos giving advice on how some of the topics might be handled in the classroom.

Question 1

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to use a part-part-whole model, to explain the structures of aggregation (addition) and partitioning (subtraction)?

Question 2

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to use a first, then and now story to explore the structures of augmentation (addition) and reduction (subtraction)?

Question 3

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to use finding the difference as a model for comparison?

Question 4

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to explain commutative and associative laws and the importance they play in additive reasoning?

Question 5

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to use and apply a range of mental strategies to support efficient calculation?

Question 6

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to use manipulatives when developing a written algorithm for addition?

Question 7

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to explore different written algorithms for subtraction?

Question 8

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to select appropriate and efficient strategies, dependent on context?

Question 9

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to calculate with negative numbers?

Question 10

How confident are you that you understand and can support children to develop strategies for solving problems with two unknowns?

All question documents for this area