Celebrating all that is different Ever since was a child, I have been fascinated by diversity. Colour, accent, language, religion. I was such an inquisitive child! I always wanted to know why, where and how. And don’t think for one moment that I could be … Continue reading If the world was a village of 100, one of my favourite resources!
The fun of a numeracy and maths challenge day for KS2 students.
I love being able to invite local primary schools to send teams to a numeracy and maths challenge day.
I love throwing a number of curve balls towards the students and giving them a range of tasks from working together in groups to leading students individually towards the pit. Some easy four operations challenges to some GCSE questions.
My last school embraced the growth mindset so I tried to lead students towards the pit and encouraged them to use the skills they had to move out of it.
Each time I have ran a challenge day, I have invited each feeder school to enter up to 2 teams of 4 students. I have told the schools in advance that there will be 4 operations challenges, shopping challenges, displaying data and some engineering challenges.
Once the students arrive, each team has to draw a caricature team portrait, marks awarded for the ones we can guess.
I have a team of maths mentors helping run the event. Often, the biggest problem is that the maths mentors get very excited and want their old primary school to win. This just means that we have to organise the mentors so they are with a school that they didn’t attend. It’s only natural as I would want my primary school to win too.
I start with a treasure hunt around the school so the potential students can see the school in its normal environment.
The obvious ice breakers,
I always use a Kagan activity where students do a stand up, hand up, pair up activity. Each team has 4 questions on 4 different coloured cards. Students are only allowed to pair up with students who have the same coloured card. I keep this activity very simple and usually do it with the four operations and squared numbers. I give any visiting TA’s and my mentors the same cards too so they join in. This encourages the KS2 students to not be as shy and they quickly start to cooperate.
So now the students are up and active. I introduce the day! I start by giving students a shopping challenge. They have to buy my shopping list from the shops around the room. Obviously my shops have different prices for different goods and all the shops sell different goods. Points are awarded to the first team to finish. The most points are awarded to the team who complete the list as cheaply as possible.
Now an individual challenge, well sort of individual. I give each team 4 different work sheets of varying difficulty, from 20 minutes style challenges to addagons, from fractions to percentages. This challenge I have to ask staff not to help. It is however incredibly difficult for staff not to help and the mentors have to enforce the rules. The worksheets are face down then I insist that the students read the instructions on their sheet very carefully. I give them 1 minute to read the instructions. The most difficult part of the challenge is not allowing the students to start until they have read the instructions.
Then I start to have fun. Students are asked to start. I give them 5 minutes to complete as many questions as possible, then ask them to stop. They have to pass their papers around the table clock wise 3 students. Then we start them again, 1 minute to read the instructions, start the activity, 4 minutes to complete as many questions as possible, stop the activity. Move papers forward clockwise 2 students. Start, 1 minute to read the instructions, start the activity, 5 minutes to answer as many questions as possible, stop. Move papers clockwise 1 student. The fourth student is given 1 minute to read the instructions then 4 minutes to complete as many questions as possible. It is essential that there are enough questions on the work sheets to fulfil the 18 minutes of questions. I have found that the KS2 students did not enjoy doing the adagon style questions.
They were really uncomfortable in THE PIT.
We use the experience as a learning opportunity where students find they are good at some skills and not so good at others but their ability averages out and they still help their individual teams.
Back to group activities. I give every student the infamous pack of mini smarties. Each team is then given 4 sheets of graph paper, 4 rulers, a calculator and a pair of compasses. My only instruction is to present the data 4 different ways.
Now onto another individual activity where students do a tables challenge 10 minutes to answer as many questions correctly as possible , 4 different sheets per table. Within a few seconds, some students put their hands up to tell me the question sheets are all different. Some students hadn’t realised and were copying from the person they deem to be best at times tables.
Another group activity.
Assuming their dream bedroom has nothing in it apart from a bed, a wardrobe, a carpet and curtains. Students are given Argos catalogues and £1000 to accessorise their bedrooms, from play stations to televisions, from gaming chairs to guitars.
Another group activity of a collective memory. I usually use one of the wonderful numeracy and revision mats available on line. Last time I used the angles revision sheet
I then do a pairs activity
Two students do a coordinate challenge. Once again there are a number available on line but I usually create my own dependant on the time of year and I make it seasonal. Pudsey coordinates are always popular around children in need times and obviously Rudolf is a huge hit around Christmas.
The other pair are given an origami challenge, I have a wonderful origami book that I use. And I give them a net challenge
http://www.senteacher.org/worksheet/12/NetsPolyhedra.html
is brilliant for nets.
My last two challenges have become very popular, a variation of spaghetti towers
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/~/media//Educators/Educators_downloads/spaghetti_challenge.ashx
There are a number of different options for spaghetti towers activity. I just prefer the science museum one.
And a variation of straw bridge challenge. Once again there a number of different versions of this activity online. I just prefer this one.
Click to access Straw%20Bridge%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf
I change my challenges depending on the time parameters and I try to work within the confines of the SoW our feeder primaries are following.
If students have concentrated on shapes , I will do a shape activity.
If feeder schools have had a literacy focus , I will use the how much is your word worth.
I can easily adapt the day. I have built up about 100 different activities, GCSE questions are always incredibly popular because KS2 students love the challenge.
As always, I have my reward cards and reward magnets alongside biscuits, certificates for the mentors choice, a shield as a reward so it can be passed on from year to year. Individual cups for the winning team , certificates for the competitors.
According to Wikipedia, so it must be true 🙂
Music theorists sometimes use mathematics to understand music, and although music has no axiomatic foundation in modern mathematics, mathematics is “the basis of sound” and sound itself “in its musical aspects… exhibits a remarkable array of number properties”, simply because nature itself “is amazingly mathematical”
Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Music, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp 42-3
I want to consider however, the use of music as a hook
Year after year, maths corridors around this green and pleasant land sway to the tune that is the all familiar song by Dave Mitchell on the CD” Maths, Music and Mayhem”
Circle Song 2 – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDha0wqbcI
Here is a circle,
It knows how to get around,
It has a radius from centre to rim,
And it’s diameter’s a line that goes from side to side,
While passing through the centre,
Now isn’t that simple,
I’ve just typed that without checking the words, so it works, even on me, a person who claims to be a music phobe, or more specifically, a person who claims to not like music or listen to it. – I drive in silence
But clearly it works! Or does it ? The unmistakable tones of here is a circle as you stand at the doorway. If any class has just heard the circle song in a lesson – you will hear it sang on the way to, their next lesson. In exams you can see people mouthing the words;
Pi R squared sounds like area to me, if you need the circumference then use Pi D.
Encourage someone to upload it from you tube onto social media and look out for the comments the following morning.
Another goto.
Bodmas you do the brackets first the song produced and directed by A. Marchbank, song by S. Burrell and the Warwicks Maths PGCE.
The BODMAS Song – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FKjqL6NyQ
Once again I can quote the first line ,
This is a recording studio people,….. a bit of respect…
This has a remarkably contagious melody and catchy tune and students usually sing along quite merrily!
And my patented, fastest white board first, name that tune starter that I use once when I introduce polygons.
Sneak Peak of James Blunt on Sesame Street – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Z6tDSb6c8
So as I was saying, I don’t particularly like listening to any music, but I have to admit these ditties do have a remarkable role to play in the maths classroom. If you take a look at songsforteaching.com, in fact if you google songs for teaching mathematics you can spend a few hours researching and listening to various songs of varying quality that are there to help any auditory learner…
There are a number of research papers and articles stating the value of listening to music in maths lessons, apparently music helps children learn maths!
“ Listening to music in maths lessons can dramatically improve children’s ability in the subject and help them score up to 40 per cent higher in examinations, a new study has found. For tapping out a beat may help children learn difficult fraction concepts” according to new findings due to be published in the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics.
“An innovative curriculum uses rhythm to teach fractions at a California school where students in a music-based programme scored significantly higher on math tests than their peers who received regular instruction.”Academic Music” is a hands-on curriculum that uses music notation, clapping, drumming and chanting to introduce third-grade students to fractions.”
Published in The telegraph 22 March 2012
Similarly an article published on www. Kallikids.com extols the virtues of mathematical learning whitest listening to music
Studies and research can be quoted ad finitum proving that music does help students learn mathematics, similarly it can be proved that music doesn’t helps students learn mathematics. I however, a music non listener, can categorically say that, in my experience, some songs, rhymes and ditties do help some children recall facts and recall mathematical formulae. It’s yet another tool in our ever expanding tool kit.
Kicking and screaming
4 rows of 8 list learning, exemplars and consolidation.
Memories, ah sweet memories. I still prefer to learn this way. But it’s not about me.
A few years ago, as an experiment, our head of department changed her rows to group tables. It started with four sixes and two fours. During the next maths meeting , we discussed the pro’s and con’s and the department decided that we would all try it.
All of us… I guess that meant me too. I chose to struggle to move the tables so everyone helped and there I was, faced with my groups. I struggled and struggled and struggled, various permutations of the seating plan, I hated it but persevered. Student A and student B have to be separated, student A and student C work well together…
Not long afterwards , our school became advocates of collaborative learning structures and my painstaking search for my new group seating plans was going to be changed again. As a disabled person, moving around any classroom is difficult for me but it didn’t take long to adapt.
With our new Kagan seating arrangements, we have 8 tables of 4. My initial reaction approaching panic and “change bad” in a class of 32, seating was much easier, excel used students test scores and rated students 1 to 32. In the second column, Excel input numbers 1 to 8 repeated 4 times. A little bit of ordering and I had my 8 groups each group had a range of ability students, (H MA MA L) students can work comfortably with similar ability partners , either with face partners, (the person they are facing), shoulder partners, (the person next to them) or , numbered heads together, (all four table colleagues)
At the start of these Kagan seating arrangements , I struggled, I read and re read the books practised and re practised, I stuck at it. And, of course,the immortal phrase that I now love, I’ve had made it into a display sign! Ask 3 before me. Ask your colleagues, three different colleagues, every student has a small group of three colleagues who they can ask for help and pointers. Students seem to be able to explain things in a far student friendlier way. They appreciate colleagues opinions and discussions becomes normal!
The biggest change I found was the noise. Noise levels increased but that’s Ok because as long as you are circulating you can divert any off task discussions about last nights East Enders et al back to maths, you can address any misconceptions and help guide discussion!
I was teaching, a very gifted, top set year 9 group and I was dubious about whether this collaborative learning malarkey would work as I loved the independence of this gifted group! I’ve seen the research findings and I have faith , it will work. I’ve got to be honest , lead students improved their test scores by constantly reinforcing their learning, weaker students benefitted by having the confidence to ask a smaller group. Learning by working together and by making mistakes is actively encouraged. I’m a convert. I saw HA students become A* students and MA students become grade A learners and LA students become grade B learners.
If in doubt l give it a try. You never know until you’ve tried it . I was definitely a 4 quiet rows of 8 working quietly but now I’m an 8 groups of 4, discussing, collaborating and moving forward much louder
I’m not saying it’s perfect but it’s yet another tool to try.
Am I brave enough for Chinese School
I thought I would write a few pages about learning styles. I’m going to start with the way I learn. I’m going to move forward and discuss various learning styles and teaching styles: KAV, Kagan, mastery, Dweck, flipped learning.
Finally being grown up enough to know how I learn and how I should revise. I think I have single handedly solved the problems of A levels, well to be fair , I’ve single handedly solved the problems of my A levels/ O levels, I had learned these skills by the time it got to my degree and my PhD
So, from what I’ve seen of the Chinese experiment at Bohunt, it would suit me perfectly. When I can do something,I would do enough, a requisite amount and then I would switch off. If I find something easy I switch off (lesson learned with my teaching) however, if it’s something difficult, with an exemplar, one explanation and a million examples to work through. I’m your learner. Way back at my grammar school, it was far more traditional. Examples and practise, practise practise. You can’t beat a bit of consolidation!
When I want to learn, I can blank out any back ground noise, any distraction as I’m incredibly focussed on what I need to achieve. Although when I’m in learning mode I prefer no noise. I don’t like to chew, i don’t like the radio, cd’s or television I do however prefer a constant supply of tea. ( perm any from Yorkshire, a PG pyramid or twinings of course )
When I taught my first A level lesson, I didn’t have an interactive white board,although I did have a white board. I worked my way through the lesson over and over again, two or three times every night during the week prior to the lesson. Going over and over my lesson, over and over the examples, step by step. I have always described myself as a list learner.
If I’m being honest, Teaching this first A level lesson, taught me where I went wrong at A level, I should have gone over the lessons afterwards in my sequential style. Step by step over and over the examples, using my exemplars . If only I knew then, what I know now. And to be fair, in addition to me knowing how I learn best, knowing much extra time I should have dedicated to revision as I went along , And I’m sure it would have helped a lot if I’d have not been quite the know it all little 17/ 18 year old too. ( Sorry Mr. Berry)
So This is the start of my summer blog. I’m already addicted and looking for a domain name:)
I’ve always written articles and produced my ramblings for my own reflection, and really enjoyed it! There’s something about writing. I find it relaxing and challenging.
I’ve done since I got my first 5 year diary as a child! First draft 1973 to 1977 every day, not exactly grammatical brilliance or eloquence but I’ve always written. Over the years, I have graduated from paper mate pen (they were very posh back in the day, you could write upside down with them) in my five year diary to cross fountain pen and hand made paperin a journal. It’s now time to possibly do it officially with iPad and WordPress.
Welcome to my world, a strange world at times; a world of things to do, a world of things to see, a world of things to try, a world with lots of mathsie stuff , a world with lots of books. An online world where I can guarantee lots of grammatical errors and just lots of stuff. Well that’s the plan…. The first plan that is ! I’m a teacher there will be diversions , digressions and my mind will wander …
Enjoy ,… Enjoy it as much as I do.
ktlmaths 