Author: Matilde Warden

3rd February

Hello Maths,

It was great to spend the day with you all on Monday. Thank you once again for your contributions and enthusiasm throughout the day.

As promised, the documents from the day are attached here.

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I had added a couple of other things to the site this week: The oral assessments that have been developed by WPC and ALC for the year 7 Angles unit of work have been added to the Year 7 Spring 1 page, and the year 8 assessment which is in the usual place.  For some reason, the site is no longer allowing me to add password protected documents, so to get around that until I find how to fix the problem, I have added the assessment to a password protected page. The password is the usual one.

The year 8 assessment covers both the Autumn 2 and Spring 1 content. It would be useful to spend some time revising the content from last term during lessons building up to the test. If you do make any revision resources, please send them to me so I can share them with others.

Year 8 assessments (and year 9 at BBA) can be completed between now and two weeks after half term. Go 4 Schools markbooks will be updated this week.

The year 11 at BBA are currently sitting their second set of Maths mocks this week. Thank you to the year 11 teachers who have already put the scores in for paper 1. That is very speedy marking! ALC and WPC mocks will be a couple of weeks after half term.  We will be using the same grade boundaries as we used for paper 1, but please remember that these are only estimates, and should be used with caution.

That’s all this week – don’t forget to have a look at the Primary bulletin if you get the chance.

Matilde

 

 

January 2017

This month at the Primary we have been focusing on challenge in maths, using it to both deepen the learning and stretch the more-able pupils. I delivered some training before Christmas that split challenge in maths into 4 main areas: ‘Prove it’, ‘Teach it’, ‘Spot it’ and ‘Predict it’. This has helped staff focus their daily challenge on a skill, ability or concept that links well with that particular lesson. Below are some examples from across the year groups that we are proud to show off!

EYFS

 In EYFS a lot of the challenge is through conversations with the children that encourage them to think deeper or apply their learning. This forms excellent building blocks for the move into Year 1 when the children can then capture these sorts of ideas themselves. In the example below the child had been learning about time, and through conversation with the teacher was able to apply this to their daily routine at home as well as showing understanding of how to read the time too.

eyfs

Year 1

In Year 1 we have been experimenting with each of the 4 areas of challenge to see what sorts of questions we can think of and how well the children respond to these. We have been particularly enjoying using ‘Spot it’ and ‘Predict it’ challenges, encouraging the children to make their maths quicker and easier by looking for patterns and using these to predict other answers. In the first example below, the child was asked to spot the pattern and use it to predict the next answers. He has then written his observations: ‘It is the 2 times table and so the answer goes up by 2 more every time’. In the second example, a different child had been set an ‘Teach it’ challenge where he had to explain his reasoning for solving a problem in his chosen way. The child has responded ‘I will do the biggest number first because it will be easier’. It gave great insight into how he is approaching problems and showing, even at 6, he is able to think about how to make his maths more efficient!

y1

y1a

Year 2

 In Year 2 the focus has been on challenging the children to draw out maths from number stories as opposed to just formal number sentences. In the example below, the children had been adding 3 one-digit numbers and so were encouraged to find the ‘hidden’ number sentence in the written problem. Their further challenge was then to deepen their understanding by writing their own number story for a similar problem.

 y2 

Year 3

 Year 3 have also been making good use of number stories in their challenge, encouraging the children to apply their learning and show a deeper level of understanding by being able to put it in context. They have also been trying out the ‘Teach it’ challenge area, being encouraged to explain the way they have approached a problem and why. In the below example the child explains she ‘counted in threes’ to get the right answer, giving insight into how she is applying her understanding of times tables to multiplication.

y3

y3a

Next month we will be focusing on the use of concrete resources in maths, as part of the CPA approach from Singapore Maths.

Krissie

27th January

Hi Maths

A very short one today as we will be spending the whole day together on Monday. What a treat!

We will be spending the day at Aspley campus in Ma01.

training

Some completely optional pre-reading is linked below if you are interested. (It is not compulsory at all – I will just be referring to ideas in these papers. The second paper is particularly long!)

Skemp- relational-vs-instrumental

Mason and Watson – An exercise as a single mathematical object

Thank you to Louise who has organised the fuddle, and thank you to everyone who has offered to bring some food.

See you all on Monday!

Matilde

 

20th January

Hello Maths,

I hope you’ve all had a great week.

Thank you to everyone for putting your results into Go 4 schools this week.  I know some of you at Wollaton and Aspley are ready for the year 9 assessment 3 (year 10 as Beechdale). It is now on the site, along with the markscheme.  I haven’t had chance to have it proof read – so please do check before you photocopy, and let me know about any errors.  Don’t worry if you aren’t ready for this assessment just yet – the deadline isn’t until Friday 10th Feb.

I was at the Secondary Maths Conference hosted by our two local Maths Hubs today. I ran a workshop on Feedback and Marking and it was really interesting to hear about the range of policies that different schools have for marking and feedback (there are some schools you should NEVER work at!)

The aim of my session was to look at how efficient and effective our marking is and to investigate other ways of gaining information that can inform our planning.  We looked at how we could make sure that what we do actually used to adapt our lessons to address what has been found.

We looked at three different ways as an alternative to writing comments in books:

Diagnostic Questions

From the ever reliable Craig Barton of MrBartonMaths fame, we now have the great completely free resource https://diagnosticquestions.com/learn. Some of you may already be using this in your lessons or for homework.

It is  great way to identify misconceptions – it also has feedback from everyone who has ever answered the questions as to why they answered that way. Schemes of work can be uploaded so that they automatically send your students the questions every week on the topic they are studying.  The best thing is they have teamed up with AQA to create questions for every topic on the new GCSE here.  The questions are great for revision, and perfect for practising the multiple choice questions.

You will need to sign up to access the site, but have do have a look and see if it’s something you would like to try.

The idea can be used without the website though –

  • You could write diagnostic questions together as part of a collaborative planning session on a new topic.  Working together in this way can help in planning questions when teaching the lesson to bring out these misconceptions
  • Students could write a set of diagnostic questions to show their understanding. Choosing common misconceptions for the wrong answers is a difficult skill.

Entry Tickets

Towards the exam season, teachers can get really bogged down with past paper marking, particularly if they have multiple exam classes.  One way to reduce this burden is the use of entry tickets.

The process goes like this:

  • Set homework (maybe 3 exam questions – not too many) giving the answers out at the same time (not working out)
  • The homework is to complete the questions and to check that their final answer is correct.
  • If they get an answer wrong, they are expected to try to find their error and correct it before handing it in.
  • If they really can’t find the error, they hand in the slip (below) into the document wallet or box by the door on entry to their lesson.
  • The teacher quickly puts these tickets into piles to see which questions they struggled on.
  • Any questions that appear several times will be addressed in class by the teacher. The teacher can see other students individually to go over their questions.

entryStudents still have to bring their completed work so you can see it has been completed and marked. If you think they will just tick any box without actually doing the work, you could just pick out an entry ticket at random and ask them to bring their attempt up to show the class under a visualiser (if you have one)- “What have they done wrong? How would you help to improve this answer?”

“Read all the books”

The following idea is taken from Michaela School in Brent. They don’t write comments in any books, but have a great way of getting information from the students’ work to use in their next lessons.

This is from one of their English teachers, but this could easily be transferred to maths lessons.

“I read my pupils’ books once or twice a week. I teach four classes, each with between 28 and 32 pupils, so it is about 120 books in all. I read 60 books in 30 minutes.

As I read, I make notes: spellings lots are getting wrong, things they’re all doing well at, and the main issues they need to improve. I note down anyone whose paragraph is amazing to reward with merits or show the class; I note down anyone whose work is messy to give a demerit to. It looks something like this:”

michaela

Read the full blog here.

Notice that this isn’t a template – its use is only intended for the teacher herself – to remind her who to talk to and what needs to be addressed in the next lesson.

Another teacher explains:

“When reading their books, you put a tick in the margin of a sentence you found especially impressive, and note their name and a trigger word on your feedback sheet. You can then say, ‘Elena, can you read your sentence on alliteration?’ It is lovely to celebrate the impressive responses of pupils, while also helping others see what they ought to be writing about:”

I love this idea. It’s definitely something I will be trying.

All the schools who came to the workshop signed up to trial either one or more of these techniques to see if they were a more time efficient, but still as effective (if not more), as writing comments in books. If you would like to trial any of them and would be willing to share your findings with the Maths Hub, please complete the attached form  and send it back to me. (The last two sections are how you plan to feedback and how you plan to collect student feedback).

Have a great weekend,

Matilde

 

 

 

13th January

Hi Maths

 

Welcome back everyone!  I hope you’ve all had a good first week back.

Just a few notices for today:

Year 7 Autumn 2 test scores

Please can these be put into Go 4 Schools by Monday 23rd January.

Remember that you only record the number of triangles coloured in and the ‘grade’ will be automatically calculated (instructions here if you need a refresh). Please do not communicate this number with students or parents – it is only used for our progress calculations.

Any of questions 1 – 7 that are not marked with a full box should be ticked on Go 4 Schools. These areas should be covered by some catch up, whether it be with the class teacher or by the year 7 intervention programme at the individual schools.

I have decided not to have an end of term written assessment for Spring 1 for year 7.  The half term is very short, and so the test might not be as useful as it could. We also have year 8 tests at the end of this half term and the year 11 mock exams at a similar time, so not having a written assessment may help with workload pressures at that time.

As an alternative, those of you at ALC and WPC will hear about an alternative type of assessment in your Teach Meets on Wednesday morning as part of the literacy/oracy strategy. You will have time in your BBL session the week after to work on this and we will trial this instead of having the written assessment. We will also use whatever has been planned at BBA.

Year 10 (ALC and WPC) test scores

Please can these results be put into the column for Assessment 2 by the same date – 23rd January.  Thank you.

Common INSET day on 30th January

I am delighted that we will all have the opportunity to be together on 30th January. We will have a lot to work through, but I know it will be a very productive day.  Lunch will not be provided, so Louise from Wollaton has suggested that we have a fuddle, which I thought was great idea. More details closer to the time.

Have a great weekend.

Matilde

 

 

19th December

Hi Maths

I don’t think there has ever been a longer Autumn term – 1st September until 22nd December – and you’re all still here!

If you didn’t catch the new Primary bulletin earlier in the week, please do have a look on the Primary tab. Our colleagues had the official opening of their building this week, which is all very exciting!

For this last bulletin of the year, I would like to thank everyone of you for your hard work this term. There have been a lot of changes, and not too many complaints (well, not to my face, anyway!) and it has been great to see years 7 and 8 engaging in the lessons so well, even though some of the tasks are pretty challenging.

If you have finished the schemes for this half term and have some lessons to spare, there are some Christmas lessons here.  The page has been updated since I sent you the link earlier in the week. I had forgotten Speedy Santa, which is a Fermi style problem solving lesson. I’ve also added this link to Desmos for a drawing a Christmas tree activity, which is really good. (Click on the picture to go the the Desmos page)

desmostree

Adam from Wollaton has also sent a folder full of goodies to share, which is now linked on the page.

The first four lessons for next term’s year 8 are already up, and the first four for year 7 will definitely be uploaded this weekend, so that you don’t have to spend your holiday doing too much planning.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone – have a good rest and try not to think about work.

I’ll see you all nice and refreshed and ready to go in January.

Merry Christmas!

Matilde

 

Some Christmas lessons

Leave a comment

I know it’s not Friday, but I know some of you are thinking of some Christmaths lessons for next week. Here are some ideas. If you have any others, please add in the comments section.

This one is from Think Maths

Objective  To Make a 3D Fractal Christmas tree
Resources Lesson Plan
Powerpoint for displayPowerpoint for display
Christmas Tunes
Instructions + Koch Snowflake printed on yellow card
Sierpinski Tetrahedron printed on green card
Menger Sponge printed on red card
Scissors
Glue
Lots of patience
Extra geekiness Research a bit more about fractals, just because you can.

Fractals worksheets

fractal

Another great problem solving lesson comes from Bowland Maths where pupils determine the amount of time Santa can spend at each house in the UK when delivering presents on Christmas Eve. This Speedy Santa link contains all the required documents including a progression grid and sample student work.

The next one came from the TES a couple of years ago, but I don’t know who it is by.

santa

Objective  To find out who killed Santa
Resources Worksheet
Map
Who killed Santa Clue cards

And here’s a good Christmas relay – again I don’t know who made this, but it wasn’t me.  Only do this one if you can handle lots of kids running at you for the next card!

And how about using Desmos to draw a Christmas tree? I love this! If you click on the picture it will take you to the page so you can have a play about (a must if you haven’t used Desmos before)

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Thanks to Adam at Wollaton who sent me some resources to add. They are in the  folder below. If you use any others, please sent them over too, so I can add them for future years.

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And to finish off:

What do you call this?

snowdecahedron

A Snowdecahedron!

See you all soon,

Matilde

Tuesday 13th December

A big thank you to Krissie for her first contribution to our Primary bulletin, especially at this very busy time – even busier than usual for this time of year as our Primary colleagues are moving into their new building for the start of the new term. It’s all very exciting. I can’t wait to come and visit! ~ Matilde

I’ve been collecting pictures and information from staff about what their children have been up to in Maths over the past few weeks:

EYFS

In EYFS, the theme this half-term has been Traditional Tales. The children have been carrying out measuring and practising writing by making recipes for Goldilocks and measuring how much their beanstalks have grown each day. They also began matching numbers to quantity by giving Cinderella the right amount of jewels on her slipper. It has been so much fun the children barely realised they were learning!

eyfs

Year 1

Over the past few weeks Year 1 have been focusing on the numbers to 20. We began by writing them in numerals and in words, and then using the language of ‘more than’ and ‘less than’ to compare them. We moved on to adding numbers within 20, applying what we had learnt to solve Christmas-themed problems. Over the few weeks we used lots of practical resources, as encouraged by the Singapore Maths style, to help us visualise the numbers.

Year 2

In Year 2 the children have had a few weeks working on their subtraction skills. They have been using practical resources to support a variety of methods helping them subtract one- and two-digit numbers within 100. I can’t believe how far they have already come since Year 1, keep it up Year 2!

Year 3

In Year 3 they have been focusing on number and place value. The children have been counting, comparing and ordering numbers up to 1,000, as well as adding and subtracting three-digit numbers using a range of strategies. These included bar modelling, number lines and the column method. The bar model is new to the Year 3s but they are getting their heads round it quicker than some of us grown-ups!

 3

 

Moving forward we will choose a theme each month so we can focus on different areas of practice across the school.

Have a lovely Christmas break,

Krissie

Friday 9th December

Hello Maths,

Apologies for a very late Friday bulletin. I started wrapping Christmas presents, and it took a lot longer than I had expected. Next year I’m only buying cuboid shaped presents (I’m sure I say that every year).

Anyway, not much to write about this week – just a little bit about the upcoming test year 9/10 test (non-calculator btw).

While writing this test I was reminded about this question from the 2012 KS2 tests. This is an ‘old style’ question and was the worst answered question that year.

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This question was discussed at length at a conference for Primary Headteachers when the new Primary curriculum was launched the following year. They discussed how they thought the question was too difficult for their children.  The Director of Primary for the NCETM then distributed strips of paper and did this:

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She then asked the Headteachers to answer the question.  They very quickly came up with strips similar to this:

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which gave the answer 24 without any calculation.

This structure can also be used to answer question 12 on the latest year 9/10 non-calculator test paper.

capture

If you use your strip of paper, this 4 mark question is ridiculously easy.

debbiemorgan.jpg

I wonder how many of our students will use a diagram to answer the question?

I am aware that students can access this page, so I may have inadvertently given away a question on the test. However, if they are so keen to do well that they are trawling their teachers’ maths bulletins, then I think they deserve a few free marks!

I will be starting to put together the Spring 1 units of work for years 7 & 8 this week.  Year 7 will be on Angles, and Year 8 will be on 2D Geometry. For year 8, the first few lessons will be the area lessons from year 7, as they won’t have seen those lessons before.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend – not long to go now!

Matilde

 

Friday 2nd December

Hello Maths,

December is here, which means it’s the NRich Advent calendar time. I always enjoy using these to start my lessons in December. The problem from the 1st fits in very nicely with the area work from year 7 at the moment.  If you do use any of the problems in class, or if any of your students try the problems at home, please encourage your students to share what they have tried and discovered. At the bottom of each problem page there is a comment box where they can submit their work, or they can email their solutions to NRich.  Their attempts may be featured in their showcase. There is also a Primary Advent calendar here.

secondary-star.jpg

If your students (or you!) enjoy the problems, there are many more for them to explore on the Wild Maths website. I clicked on the link How to Solve Equations, which is a talk by Dr Vicky Neale on how mathematicians approach solving equations. The video is quite long, but at 8 minutes, there’s a really interesting bit on how she would find the number of integer solutions to this problem.

equation

If you’ve got a few spare minutes maybe have a go yourself before watching the video.

I know that several of you have said that it’s taking quite a bit of time to work through the year 7 scheme this half term.  If you need to carry over into next half term, then please do so – as long as we have the test done by the 20th Jan please.

There is no year 8 test this half term. Year 9 at Aspley and Wollaton and Year 10 at BBA have a test this coming week. It will be on the site by the end of the weekend.  The Year 10 test for Aspley and Wollaton is due after the first week back in January.

That’s it for today – short and sweet.

See you all next week,

Matilde