I have been on a subject knowledge and enhancement course- for teaching maths.
The course was held at the Bognor site for Chichester University. There are lots of candidates from the primary sector and only a handful from the secondary sector, which is fab as we got to have a very in depth session as secondary teachers and to address specific issues, also the course is being tailored to fit our needs.
The course is taught in phases, but we carry out some activities together as a cohort in order to see the progression of a concept and development of teaching ideas.
Today we looked the impact of the curriculum changes and began discussing how to address them.
We spent time looking at how we teach specific topics and how this can be adapted to fit with the new requirements.
I know I was concerned to see how literacy heavy and complex the new style exam will be, especially as this will be in effect for our current year 9.
One of the 1st questions on the foundation paper was …
“The sum of two consecutive integers is 48, what could the integers be ?”
This really made me think about the language I use- as I wouldn’t naturally throw the word consecutive at bottom set pupils, yet this is on the start of a sample foundation paper!
We looked at assigning values to base 10 as a numerical system, and looked at how this can be taught by looking at unrelated systems, and I learned why we have 60 second in a minute, and 60 seconds in an hour ( and that this system has been around for 3500 years)!
Amongst other things , we looked at how to teach multiplication and the new approved “single” methods which are expected as the preferred exam method, and how this will affect the year 7s coming up to us.
I have come back full of ideas, concerned about how best to prep my classes for what is a very different examination system, and with a head so full of stuff it feels about to explode (probably because we had to have a go at some mathematics tasks too!).
Next session we are looking at specific topics and practical applications for use in class and in assessment. I am really looking forwards to it, even the algebra!
Perhaps the best bit of the day was, I have learned that ducks can count.. to 4!
Faye
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