Mathematics Developmental Continuum
Reading Clocks to the Half Hour: 1.75
Supporting materials
Indicator of Progress
At this level students are able to read an analogue clock when the minute hand is pointing directly at, or close to, the 12 or the 6. They use both phrases (e.g. “half past nine” and “nine-thirty”) to denote the half-hour. Being familiar with both assists students to link analogue and digital times.
Before achieving this, students are only able to read o’clock times on analogue clocks and may not be aware of the significance of the minute hand being just to the left or right of the 12.
At this stage, students are still learning to measure time, as shown in the diagram below. After this, they will learn to measure time with more accuracy (to quarter hours and minutes) and later learn to calculate with time. See Measurement Phases.
Three phases of teaching measurement
Illustration 1: Incorrectly placed hour hand
Students should already know that the hour hand on a clock moves continuously. Because the hour hand’s movement cannot be easily observed, students sometimes think that only the minute or second hands move all the time. They should be able to identify that the hour hand on the first clock face shows that the time is between 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock, whereas the hour hand on the second clock indicates that it is 10 o’clock. When students have achieved success at this level, they will not make the mistake of drawing clocks with incorrectly placed hour hands as on the second clockface below.
Left: Correctly placed hour hand for 10:30. Right: Incorrectly placed hour hand for 10:30
Illustration 2: Times close to the hour
Before this level, students are not able to interpret the minute hand on the first clock face as indicating it is just before ten o’clock and as indicating on the second clock face that it is just after ten o’clock.
Illustration 3: Times close to the half-hour
Students who have reached this level should be able to read the first clock face as “it is almost ten thirty” or “it is almost half past ten”. Similarly they are should be able to read the second clock face as “it is just after ten thirty” or “it is just after half past ten”.
Illustration 4: Links to the Mathematics Online Interview
Examples of the types of tasks that would be illustrative of the prior knowledge for this indicator from the Mathematics Online Interview:
- Question 39 Telling the time (analogue clock)