TickTockMaths

Tag: outside

  • Chalking, P Levels

    I love chalk. It’s really useful.

    For instance, I have a nurture group. They are currently practising their times tables, but can find it really boring. A fun way to practice, and something that’s a little different is writing out the times tables on the pavement in chalk.

    That’s way more fun and they can make it look as pretty as they want.

    If you’re trying to get students to memorise facts, often doing it in a variety of ways is key.

    We have also played a game this week. The numbers from one to ten are written in a random order on the ground. A sum is read out and students must run to the correct number. Perfect if you’ve got a small nurture group as it also hits a key nurture target: learning how to lose and win without upsetting people.

    Talking of nurture, I’ve found it really challenging this year to teach a student who came in with p levels.

    I can’t find much about p levels on the net, so if anyone has got any resources please comment and link them here.

    I’ve found this by Ben Cooper handy.  It’s an assessment for p levels. This is also useful. It’s a description of what students should be able to do at each level.

    I’ve also tried to do some p level resources. Here’s my first try. It’s a worksheet talking about key words like left, right, most, all, some and altogether. I’ll be doing more of this kind of stuff.

    I think there’s a lot of work to be done on trying to teach maths to SEN students. I would welcome any tips and good resources you’ve found. My approach has been around talking, games and trying to set up a classroom environment.

  • Let's Go Outside

    A lot of maths is done at desks, in rows. I am guilty of this (I often find that if students are sat in groups of four, there is a little too much room for them to ‘hide’). However, going out of the classroom and into the real world is often really powerful.

    I was recently trying to get my students engaged in the idea of distance time graphs. These can often be tedious, especially when phrased as an exam question.

    KILL ME

    My students where also getting confused. Especially when looking at a situation that was impossible, or a situation where the subject of the graph is on a return journey.

    So I created this.

    It’s a really simple resource, just a couple of graphs. However, the idea is the students have to recreate those graphs using a stopwatch, a marker and a trundle wheel.

    This really engaged my students, and made them think about exactly how these graphs work. Once they’d practiced on a graph they would come and show me the finished product, we’d talk about how accurate their version of the graph was, and we’d talk about any misconceptions.

    I recommend you give it a go and get outside.