Order of Operations

Original post from 2017 Order of operations used to get right on my wick. I used to hate teaching it. Mainly because I did it really badly. Just by showing it and going 'but it's a convention! It's needed for other stuff!' The problem with the order of operations isn't the operations themselves, but it's in their …

Powers: Bits and Bobs

I posted this question to Twitter from the recent mock exam our year 11s did for further maths. It's lovely. The 30 'feels' wrong, and it's a perfect question to demonstrate how at a certain point, mathematically, we've just got to pootle off and see what happens - something I find low prior attaining students …

Cognitive Payload

Maths teachers can (and do) talk about the pros and cons of different representations and metaphors for maths for hours. People feel strongly about their preferred conception of the subject and the balances struck by each method, and it’s easy to forget that everyone wants their kids to be successful. I’m my experience - by …

Reasoning With Powers

Reasoning With PowersDownload I'm really enjoying pushing the conceptual understanding of a given topic area beyond its reasonable examinable example to stretch pupil thinking at the moment. The questions in this post were used in a year 8 lesson after product of primes as beastly extension questions that try to force students to appreciate the …

Interleaving Circle Theorems 1

Interleaved Circle Theorems Part 1Download I'm teaching circle theorems at the moment to my year 11s. I started off with the angles inscribed in a circle and subtended by a common chord, using the diameter as a special case and then tangents and radii being perpendicular. The task below has been designed to interleave previous …

Momentum Over Pace: Medians/Solving Quadratics by Factorising

I don't like the word pace. It's nebulous. It's contextual. It's often (and by me included) used to hide what an observer thinks the actual issues with a lesson they've observed are - if you can't quite put your finger on it, it's pace. I prefer to think of momentum rather than pace. We build …

Valid/Useful/Robust

In explicitly discussing question strategies with students and different representations and methods with teachers I’ve found the framework of validity, usefulness and robustness a valuable tool. This post outlines some examples of this in practice. With my year 9s this year, we’ve been solving equations. The scheme of learning has bar models in the examples …

Powers and Roots

Power and Roots ResourcesDownload Powers are not easy. They're the first operation where there are implied operations. A power is a position of two numbers rather than a symbol. This is a ridiculous idea if you're a kid. Why isn't there a symbol for it? Why does the shape and size of numbers affect what …

Reasoning With Angles in Parallel Lines

Reasoning With Angles In Parallel Lines ResourcesDownload The first image below is designed as a prompt for identifying equal corresponding angles. I chose to use this as it begins to get pupils filtering information, a key feature of the previous angles posts in this series. In presenting this image to pupils, it was important to …

Gradients on Grids

Gradients on Grids ResourcesDownload This post is the second that outlines activities and approaches I've taken in the sequencing of our KS4 curriculum. This is not intended as an optimal sequencing, nor is it complete. This collection of tasks and prompts are things I've made that I couldn't find elsewhere. Following on from the previous …

Gridless Gradient

Gridless Gradient ResourcesDownload This post outlines activities and approaches I've taken in the sequencing of our KS4 curriculum. This is not intended as an optimal sequencing, nor is it complete. This collection of tasks and prompts are things I've made that I couldn't find elsewhere. The first task is intended as a quick fluency drill, …