Newmans Error Analysis

The Australian educator Anne Newman (1977)

suggested five significant prompts to help
determine where errors may occur in students
attempts to solve written problems.
From reading to processing: Using Newmans 5 prompts
Western Sydney Region 2013
Making mistakes
Students can make mistakes in answering numeracy
questions for different reasons.
Newmans research elaborated the different hurdles
in answering a contextual word problem that can
cause students to stumble. Perhaps the two hurdles
currently best known by teachers are reading and
comprehension.
The hurdles
Newman identified that students may have
difficulty in
reading the words,
understanding what they have read,
transforming what they have read so as to be able to form a
course of action,
following through on procedures,
encoding the result of a procedure to answer the question.
READING
COMPREHENSION
TRANSFORMATION
PROCESS SKILLS
ENCODING
Research carried out in Australia and Southeast
Asia suggests that about 60% of students errors
in responding to written numeracy questions
occur before students reach the process skills
level.

In contrast, most remediation programs focus
solely on the process skills.
Food for thought
1. Reading
Can students read the words of the problem?
Read the question twice. Circle important information. If you dont know a word leave it out or
substitute another word.

Newmans Prompts Overview
2. Comprehension
Can students understand the meaning of what is read?
Tell me what the question is asking you to find out.

3. Transformation
Can students determine a way to solve the problem?
What could you do to get the answer? Predict what the answer will look like. Do you need to
draw a picture to help you understand?

4. Process Skills
Can students engage in the mathematical process?
Try to answer the question and explain to me what you are thinking. Check your answer with
another strategy.

5. Encoding
Can students record and interpret their answer in relation to the problem?
Write down your answer. Does it make sense? Have you answered what was being asked?

Newmans Prompt 1 - Reading
Mr Left had 8 apples. His wife
was given 3 apples. How many
apples did Mr Left have?

Many students responded by doing 8
3 = 5 or 8 + 3 = 13 Why?

Some students do not have effective
problem solving strategies and guess
or
focus on a key word, e.g. left

There are 26 sheep and 10
goats on a ship. How old is the
captain?

76 out of 97 students did one of
the following:
26 + 10 = 36
26 10 = 16
26 x 10 = 260
26 10 = 26

Research Bernard Tola, CLIC DEC
We need to read for meaning.
1 Please read the question to me.
If you dont know the word leave it out.
( highlight any word you do not know)
The problem
Many students cannot read the words correctly.
Students may not understand the meaning of
words.
Teaching strategies
Students can work with a reading partner.
A team approach to reading may help students
overcome this difficulty.
Have mathematics word charts displayed in the
classroom.
Newmans Prompt 2 - Comprehension
Ensure the students
understand the
vocabulary
Familiarise students
with the text features
Teach students how to
identify and use key
mathematical language
Use known literacy
strategies such as:
literal (here)
reading ON the lines

interpretive (hidden)
reading BETWEEN the lines

inferential (head)
reading BEYOND the lines
Henry the octopus has 6 spots
on each of his legs, how many
spots has Henry?
What was the
most/least popular
food?
How many children
bought fruit?

How many more children chose a salad
sandwich over a cheese sandwich?
How many children are represented in
the graph?
If there are 100 children in the school
how many did not choose a food lunch?

What season do you
think this survey was
taken in?
Explain why you
think this.

2. Tell me what the question is asking
you to do.
Most students can find and underline the
question.
This does not mean that they understand the
question.
Comprehension - Super Six Strategies
Comprehension strategies are the cognitive and
metacognitive strategies readers use to accomplish
the goal of comprehension.
Comprehension strategies are interrelated and will
rarely be used in isolation.
The six key strategies are:
Making connections
Predicting
Questioning
Monitoring
Visualising
Summarising
Six metacognitive comprehension strategies
Making Connections
Learners make personal connections from the text with:
something in their own life (text to self)
another text (text to text)
something occurring in the world (text to world).

What do I already know about the problem?
Have I done similar problems before?
Six metacognitive comprehension strategies
Predicting
Learners use information from graphics, text and experiences to anticipate
what will be read/viewed/heard and to actively adjust comprehension while
reading/viewing/listening.
What operation is the problem asking me to do?
Will my answer be bigger or smaller than the numbers in
the problem? Why/ why not?
What words or visuals do I expect to see in this problem?
Were my predictions accurate? Why/ why not?
Six metacognitive comprehension strategies
Questioning
Learners pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and
promote deeper understanding of the text. Questions can be
generated by the learner, a peer or the teacher.
What information in the problem helps me know
what to do?
When you read the problem did it remind you of
anything you know about or have done before?
Six metacognitive comprehension strategies
Monitoring
Learners stop and think about the text and know what to do when
meaning is disrupted.
Is the problem making sense?
Do I need to re-read/view/listen to the problem?
What can help me fill in the missing information?
Six metacognitive comprehension strategies
Visualising
Learners create a mental image from a text read/viewed/heard.
Visualising brings the text to life, engages the imagination and uses
all of the senses.
How can I represent this problem visually?
Can I describe the visual I have made for the
problem?
How did the visuals help me understand the
problem?

Six metacognitive comprehension strategies
Summarising
Learners identify and accumulate the most important ideas and
restate them in their own words.
What are the main ideas and significant details in
the problem?
If you were to tell another person how you solved
the problem, what would you tell them?
What information will help you solve the
problem?
Newmans Prompt 3 - Transformation
To overcome this hurdle children need to:
Construct a simple visual representation of the problem
eg. teach them to draw a Tape Diagram as a thinking tool


Have the problem modelled several ways, as good comprehension of
mathematical texts aids transformation
Write own problems builds familiarity of features of word problems
Have distractors in problems so they are forced to explore a range of
problem solving strategies
Have text altered for different operations and have students identify key
words and clues that help select operations
Explicitly discuss the visual clues within the tape diagram






3. Tell me how you are going to
find the answer.
At this point the function of understanding takes over from
the function of reading.
The link between comprehension and transformation is very
strong and may require the student to go through several
cycles of asking the question and trying to find ways to find
the answer.
The problem
The density of mathematical language. There is a lot packed
into a small number of words.
Teaching strategies
Read the first sentence. What does it mean? What do you
know?
Make mindmaps or charts to assist students develop the
language of mathematics.
Whats the problem with word problems?
What we want students to think about is how the numbers in
a problem relate to each other.
To achieve this we often encourage students to draw a
diagram.
Tape diagrams can be used to provide a common framework
in using diagrams as thinking tools.

A tape diagram offers students a thinking tool to visually
represent a mathematical problem and transform the words
into an appropriate numerical operation.
To get to work, I travelled on the train for 14 minutes, then I
caught a bus which took half an hour.
Finally I walked for 9 minutes. How long did it take me to
get to work?



Teaching Transformation Tape Diagrams
14 minutes Half an hour
9 minutes
53 minutes
Using tape diagrams
There were some oranges in a box.
Because we bought 14 more oranges,
there are 21 oranges in the box altogether.
How many oranges were in the box at first?

Number of
oranges at first
14 more oranges
were bought
21 oranges altogether
+ 14 = 21
= 21 14
or
Newmans Prompt 4 - Processing
Count Me In Too Resources
DENS Books
Counting On
Sample Units of Work
Talking about Patterns and Algebra
Red Dragonfly Maths
Fractions Pikelets and Lamingtons
Programming support website
Reciprocal Numeracy

These programs and strategies help us teach processes with a
focus on mental computation and problem solving.


4. Show me what to do to get the answer.
Tell me what you are doing as you work.
The problem
Students can sometimes find or guess the correct answer
without understanding the problem. They can also use an
incorrect or incomplete procedure.

Teaching strategies
Ask What do you need to know to be able to work out
the answer?
Make lists or diagrams linking words that are associated
with a process.
Newmans Prompt 5 - Encoding

Does it make sense?

Does it answer what the question is asking?

Think of ways of recording the answer.

Have you used the correct units?



5. Now write down the answer to
the question
The problem
Students often forget the question, especially
in measurement questions and do not
answer all of the question or answer using
an incorrect unit.
Teaching strategies
Have students reread the question and
compare it with their answers.
The 5 questions - RECAP
1. Read the question to me.
2. What is the question asking you to
find out?
3. What method did (could) you use?
4. Try doing it and as you are doing it tell
me what you are thinking.
5. Now write down your answer.
These can be used to diagnose where the problem lies
NEWMANS ERROR ANALYSIS
STAGE 2 ASSESSMENTS
Kate has 96 pencils. Each box
of pencils holds 10 pencils.
How many full boxes of
pencils can Kate make?
If pencils come in boxes of 15,
how many pencils are in 20
boxes?
1 READING
2 COMPREHENSION
3 TRANSFORMATION
4 PROCESS
5 ENCODING
6 No Problems
The first international cricket
team to tour England was an
Aboriginal team. The team won
14 matches, drew 19 matches
and lost 14 matches.
How many matches were
played?
Natalie paddled 402 km of the
Murray River in her canoe over
6 days. She paddled the same
distance each day.
How far did Natalie paddle
each day?
STAGE 3 ASSESSMENTS
SNAP 2006
36 % and 14 % ATSI correct
Teaching Transformation with
Newmans Prompts another
example using a Tape Diagram
James
Newmans in the classroom
Where do you think James had problems?
Reading
Comprehension
Transformation
Process Skills
Encoding



Ricky-Ann
Newmans in the classroom
Where do you think Ricky-Ann had problems?
Reading
Comprehension
Transformation
Process Skills
Encoding




Newmans method in the classroom
In using Newmans error analysis in the
classroom, it is recommended that you always
go at least one step past where the first error
occurs.
Want to find out more about NEA?
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/p
rimary/mathematics/numeracy/newman/index.htm

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/s
econdary/mathematics/numeracy/newman/index.htm
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