New CGP Revision Guides

About a month ago, I was approached by the lovely people at CGP and asked if I would like some copies of their latest revision guides for Mathematics to try out with my students. Having used the books myself when I was revising for my GCSEs, and having seen students use them over the past few years of my teaching career, I jumped at the chance to see the latest revision guides on offer.

I was very kindly sent out a copy of their Higher Edexcel (other exam boards are available) revision guide for Mathematics GCSE, together with the accompanying exam practice workbook. In addition, I was sent 15 copies of the foundation tier revision guides to give to my year 10 students (and 1 of the accompanying exam practice workbooks too). This, I was very excited about, and I tried to think of how best to introduce the revision guides to the students and get their feedback on them, whilst ensuring they knew how best to use the guides.
In my experience so far, revision guides are offered to students by schools (for a small fee), but the students are not actually told how they should be using them to revise; they're merely handed out and assumed they know how to get on and use them.

So, I decided to create a short questionnaire to give to the students to fill in as they were given their revision guide; they filled in the questionnaire as they were familiarising themselves. The aim of the questionnaire is not only to get their feedback on the revision guides but also to allow them to see all the different aspects of the book, to get them to notice certain parts of the guides and suggest ways in which they could use them.

Here's the questionnaire I gave my students...

The questionnaire targeted certain aspects of the book, asked for their first impressions and gave them an opportunity to mention anything else they thought of when looking through the guides.













Before I gave the questionnaires and the revision guides out to my students I was completely honest with them as to why they were being given the revision guides and the fact they didn't have to pay for them. I explained about my Mathematics blog and that's why I was offered the books. This also covered the fact that other students may question why my students were being given them and they weren't (I also passed them by my HoD). Having spoken to my HoD she said that if my students took to them that they were something we could order in for other students if they wanted one too.

On handing out the books there was an air of excitement about the students (it's always nice to be given something for nothing). As I was removing the packaging from the books and handing them out to the students it was like Christmas had come early. The comments about the look and feel of the new books flew around the classroom and they were soon imprinting their names on the inside front covers to take ownership of their new revision guides. As they filled in their questionnaires my TA and I went around the room directing them to certain parts of the guides as per the questions given to them.

As I was creating the questionnaires I looked through the guides myself, picking out the key aspects of the books that students needed to be aware of in order to benefit as much as they could from them. I like the fact that next to each sub-heading/topic there is a GCSE grade so that the students know what grade they are working at. Each page in the revision guide has worked examples with short, precise steps to solving certain problems. The examples are clear and in a language that students can understand; there is no unnecessary jargon. At the bottom of each page there are exam style questions for the students to attempt, with a guide as to how many marks they would get for that question and again, a grade attached to the question. At the end of each 'chapter' there is a review section that allows students to answer brief questions on each topic covered in that chapter, and a useful 'tick box' for them to tick if they are happy they have covered the topic. At the front of the guides the contents have been upgraded to include (for the modular specification [going out]) what 'unit' the topic is covered on. The index does exactly what it should do. When speaking to my HoD, when I showed her the revision guides and spoke about what I had planned with the questionnaire, she commented on the fact that students don't necessarily know the difference between the contents and the index section and that it was a good idea to highlight both and how they could be used.
One key change from the guides I used when I was a teenager is the online version of the revision guides that you get free having purchased the physical form. On the inside front page (where the students were putting their names) there is a unique online code to use with the CGP online library (more about this later).

Back to my students...

Their 1st impressions were really positive, comments such as 'smells nice', 'its very professional', 'very smart, well laid out and easy to use' and 'very helpful' were amongst those given. When it came to the next 3 questions, asking them to find a page in the book using the contents page, asking if they liked the grades next to each question and whether the examples were clear (when asked to look at a specific one on a given page) all of my students responded 'yes' to each question. When it came to looking at the revision pages (see below for an example) the students commented on the fact that they were 'helpful to see if you get questions right', 'good because you can test yourself' and 'nicely laid out...and easily readable'. They found that the exam-style questions were good because they could see the grade for the question.
In terms of the exam-style questions the answers to these are in the backs of the revision guides, however for full solutions to these questions, with additional workings and guidance you have to register online and use the online version to see these, although once registered and having input your unique code, you can download (and therefore print out) a copy of these fully worked solutions.
Finally, when asked if there was anything else they wanted to say about the books, unusually the 1 key thing they thought should be improved was the fact that the page numbers should be at the bottom of the page and not the top! So, if that's the only improvement they think the revision guides need then CGP have done a very good job with their latest revision guides indeed.

Here are some examples of the inside pages from the revision guides (taken from the CGP website)...

On this example page (on circles) you can see the sub-headings are clear and have the grade next to them. The examples and key facts are highlighted in the usual CGP style. At the bottom of the page you see the 'exam-style questions' with grade and marks.

On the revision pages you see each topic in that 'chapter'/section tested, with a 'tick box' for students to use when they feel they have mastered the topic.















The online library...

Using the unique code on the inside cover of the revision guides allows you access to the revision guide content online. You have to register an account with the CGP online website, but this takes literally a few minutes and as of yet I haven't received any spam from having signed up to this. With each different revision guide/exam practice workbook comes a different set of online resources.

If you entered the code from one of the revision guides you get:

• an online version of your revision guide
• the exam-style questions full worked solutions - this is a pdf document that you can either view online or download, save and print etc

If you entered the code from one of the exam practice workbooks you get:

• an online version of the exam practice workbook
• practice paper video solutions - a set of online videos that take you through the past paper questions in the workbook
• worked solutions to the questions in the workbook, rather than just the 'answers' that appear at the back of the book - similar to the above you can download these, save and print them.

In addition, when you open an account you get an online pdf that gives you examples/ideas of HOW to revise and go about your revision for your GCSEs. Useful for students. This is a pdf that you can download too.

 










What's happened since I gave out the revision guides?

Some of my students have taken their revision guides home and keep them there. However, the majority of the class either, just like they do with their exercise book, bring their revision guide to each of our lessons or they keep the revision guide at school on my bookshelf where I keep my classes' exercise books. I like the fact that they have the choice here and I was impressed by how many of them keep bringing the revision guides in each lesson without me saying so. I now see students looking up certain topics we are doing in class. For example, when the class enters and are getting their equipment out I usually have the title on the board. I have seen students flicking through their revision guides to look up the title (topic) so it's then there, ready, in front of them for the lesson, should they need a bit of extra support/guidance.

The cost?

The revision guides and exam practice workbooks are only £2 each when bought through the school. I've already spoken to my HoD and school shop assistant (who orders in the revision guides/workbooks for our students) and it is something that we may look to do when the 'exam season' looms closer.

My students certainly are impressed by their new revision guides, the fact that they are appearing in our lessons still, a month after they were handed out, suggests they are working and the students are using them proactively. Also, I have 5 students (in my top set Year 11 class) that are sitting their GCSE examinations in November and they are using the higher tier revision guide in class to assist with their revision for their examinations - they're all aiming to get their A*s in November!

I'm very grateful to the people at CGP for offering me these books. I didn't have to write this blog post about them, but feel that as the books were kindly offered, and my students were as grateful for them as I was, that it was only right I said thank you and spread the word as to the usefulness of the books.

So...CGP, thank you on behalf of my Year 10 students and, of course, me too!


Paper Plates and #poundlandpedagogy

Thinking of how I was going to teach my set 5 year 10 class provided something of an ongoing headache throughout the year. I was constantly having to ask myself what would get them involved in the lesson, what would actually benefit them - students who didn't see much 'point' in most of the things I was having to teach them in order for them to perform at all in their examinations. I tried all manner of ideas throughout the year.
These have included my mini Scheme of Work that I made and delivered for them. This worked for a while, but towards the 7th or 8th lessons in the Scheme of Work they started to lose interest in it. However, they did get a lot out of it and I will use this in the future. To see the Scheme of Work post click here...

http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/your-new-flat-scheme-of-work.html

I tried to make all of our lessons as interactive as possible with as many manipulatives that I could find appropriate for each lesson. I tried the 'text book' approach by just giving them a text book to work through on a topic after a brief instruction from me. Strangely 1 or 2 of them preferred these lessons over any other and liked being able to just get on with it. The rest ran out of concentration half-way through the lesson and the amount of questions attempted by some were embarrassing to say the least. So, having gone through this see-saw like attempt all year I decided to stick to what I felt they had worked best with when planning some revision lessons and that was with the more bizarre lessons, the lessons where that element of 'are we really doing this sir?' would crop up.

For one particular revision lesson I decided to use the paper plates I had bought as part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy to revise everything we had done concerning circles. I also got out some straws to form the 'tangents' and gave them specific things to do with each paper plate they were given. The students were given a plate at a time and these were the things I asked them to do/draw on each plate...

1st I asked them to label all the key parts of a circle using the key vocab list I had put on the board. They had to write/draw/label each of the key words on their paper plate in the correct place. Here's what they created...

 As they were annotating their paper plates I was going round the class asking them why they were putting each word in each place - trying to get a definition out of them.

After they had finished this task I then got them to (roughly) draw any 3 or 4 lines from the centre of the circle (radii) and to then, as accurately as they could, with a protractor measure each angle of the sectors created. This led to discussions as to what the angles should sum to, how to use a protractor and the accuracies/inaccuracies of the lines they had drawn being the reasons behind why/why they didn't sum to 360 degrees...

After this task I then got students to measure the radius of a plate, it's diameter and then work out it's circumference and area using the formulae I reminded them of on the board and the approximation of Pi for those that didn't have a calculator with them (don't ask)!

At the end of the session we had a lot of plates annotated with circle vocab, angle facts, area and circumferences etc etc. Some students moved on to work out areas and lengths of sectors/arcs respectively. This then gave them all a clear visual aid to take home and hang up somewhere or add to their revision notes when revising for their examinations.

Deal or No Deal Revision - refined

A couple of years a go I (with the help of Miss Moore) created my 'Deal or no Deal' boxes that I have used in class when exam season hits.
I first used the boxes back when I was a Cover Supervisor and volunteered to run a revision session in the Easter Holidays as part of the school's intervention programme for the GCSEs. You can see this on my old 'GTP reflective journal' blog at http://mrcollinsreflectivejournal.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/revision-deal-or-no-deal-stylie.html

Now, I believe that I do revision lessons pretty well. I am able to find fun and engaging ways to do revision that my classes enjoy and learn from. One of these is my 'Deal or No Deal' revision session.

This year I decided to tweak the session from what I had done previously to make it even better than it had been. This was based on a conversation I had with my HoD about how it could be made better. We had run a joint revision lesson for our year 8 classes earlier in the year before their 'mid-term assessment' and we spoke about a few things that could be improved...

Before I had used SMARTboard and SMARTnotebook I was using a powerpoint file to have the 'Deal or No Deal' board on that I would update as the game was going on. This took time and stopped the session at points to do the all needed updating of the board. So, now that I had SMART to work with I created a board on SMARTnotebook that would allow me to easily swipe away the amounts. Not only this, I also put a question under each amount so that as it was swiped away a question would be revealed that the class would then all have a go at answering, rewards given to those with the correct answer. This made the game a bit more about revision than just opening boxes. Here's how the main 'board' looks like on screen...

 

Whilst the game is going on these questions aren't the only ones the students get to answer. In each player's box there is a question to answer once they (and their box) have been selected in the game. I also give each student a worksheet of 10-20 questions to be answering throughout and after the game has finished. This is how my most recent one looked...

 

 

These questions are then marked and gone through after the game has finished to check understanding and provide more of a particular question where necessary. The 'game' part of the lesson/session only takes up to 40 minutes to do. This leaves the rest of the session/lesson to go through the questions the students have to do throughout the game and those that are in their boxes. All the questions in the boxes are past exam questions too.

 

I feel the revision session using the above format not only engages my students, especially when they see the room set up in two aisles and with the red boxes on top, but it also gets them to answer more questions than they perhaps would if I had just given them a past paper and told them to get on with it. They discuss answers a lot more, work together to try and get the 250,000 prize box, which they are rewarded by accordingly throughout the continuous 'banker' offers - I always get a guest teacher to come and be the banker! I use my 'random box generator' to chose a box at the start of the lesson so all students have a fair chance of 'playing' the game. All other students are manning the boxes on their own or in pairs depending on numbers of students (I only have 20 boxes).

 

GCSE Revision...with Y9! (Relay)

Last month, during the Easter holidays, I saw a tweet from @Ms_Kmp with a link to an idea on her blog to make GCSE revision more fun.

See her blog post here. Check out the rest of her blog too for some great ideas.

Our Y9s are sitting a mock METHODS in Mathematics paper next week in preparation for setting them for Y10 and to give them an idea of what will be expected next year. All bar the top sets will be sitting the foundation paper. As I teach one of the top sets I decided to put @Ms_Kmp's idea into practice. Here's how I did it...

We gave out a topic list to all classes as to what was on the mock paper and therefore what they should be revising for the examination (just the non-calculator paper). I asked the class, after giving out the topic list, if there were any topics in particular that they saw on the list that they had little or no idea about and then highlighted these to focus on in this week and next's lessons prior to their examination. The topics that were identified here were predictably Venn Diagrams, Surds, Standard Form etc.

I decided, on seeing @Ms_Kmp's tweet, that I would, in the first instance, use her revision lesson to go over a past paper, focusing on all the topics the class should be able to do based on the topics learnt to date. This way I could then identify those topics they'd need some more support on.

So, I browsed the Edexcel emporium (www.edexcelmaths.com) for some past exam paper questions that were similar to those that they would be faced with in their mock paper. I then put all of these questions (15 in total) into one word document. At the same time, I picked out the answers to each of these questions from the official mark schemes and put these in a separate document. I then, with the help of my tutor group, cut up the past paper questions document into individual questions so that I had 15 piles of the 15 questions. These were then put at the front of the class on the 2 tables where I would sit my G&T students.

On the tables at the front of the class I also put 4 copies of the mark scheme document for the G&T students to use throughout the lesson. The 4 students I chose were those who have consistently performed well this year and will be aiming at the level 8s come the end of the year. These students, as suggested, are also on the school's G&T register for Mathematics. At the start of the lesson I briefed these students on their role and explained the terminology of the mark scheme and how they should 'mark' the rest of the class' work using the mark scheme. Whilst they were browsing through this and familiarising themselves I was setting the rest of the class up. I asked the class to get themselves into teams of 2 or 3 students. They then had to allocate roles within their groups. One person was to be the 'runner' - the person who would take their questions up to the markers and then get the next question. One person was to have the final say on the groups answer to the questions before the runner would take them to be marked and the final person/s would be working through the questions with the group and keeping an eye on the class spreadsheet.

The class spreadsheet was where I came in. As the groups were arranging themselves I set this up on the IWB and put the group's names into it. Then, throughout the lesson I updated this with the questions the class were getting correct/incorrect. This gave a clear indication to the class as to which group was on which question etc.

The activity started with each group being given the 1st question. Once they felt they knew the answer they would go to the markers. If they got it right they would be given the next question and the markers would hand me their answer to update the spreadsheet. If they got it wrong they would be told how many marks they got and then a 'dash' would be put at the top of their question to indicate that they'd already got it wrong once, if they got it wrong a second time it would be marked incorrect and given to me for updating the xls. They would then be given the next question.

The lesson worked extremely well with the whole class engaged and trying to beat the other groups in terms of the question they were on and the accuracy of their answers. My 'markers' were fantastic and they all were actively marking groups' work and suggesting where they had gone wrong in line with the mark scheme. I told them that they could offer advice as to what the groups had done wrong in order for them to adjust their answers and this was a really positive experience for them. They were, at first, concerned by the fact they would not actually be answering the questions themselves, but I allowed them to have a copy of the questions to try as they were doing the marking themselves and I told them that by looking at the mark scheme and marking their peers' work that they'd be doing more than it first may have appeared. I believe that by them seeing the mark scheme, and working with it, that it will enable them to see where they pick up all the marks and how the 'workings' are needed and just by what extent in terms of the marks awarded for them. In our next lesson I am going to get them to feedback to the rest of the class what they found by doing this role and what they learnt from it - hopefully here they will be able to give the rest of the class tips when doing their exam.

Here's how the front of the class looked - the markers' desk...

This was right at the end of the lesson (I almost forgot to take a photo) and so it looks a little bit chaotic! The questions are to the right of the picture on the end of the tables - groups were to take the next question along each time. You can see the mark schemes on the desks the markers were using.













Here's a selection of the marked questions that were handed to me...

Hopefully you'll be able to see the marking on these, the corrections some of the groups had to make and those that had a 'dash' put on their sheets to indicate an initially incorrect answer?









Below, you can see the spreadsheet at the end of the lesson. I have deleted the names to keep my guys anonymous. I used some conditional formatting to highlight all the correct answers (1) and the incorrect answers were left as normal (0). From this I can now see that I need to, next lesson, go over HCF and LCM and enlargements from a centre of enlargement. These will form the basis of the starter of my lesson and then I'll go onto covering Venn Diagrams with the class (based on feedback from the class on their topic trackers). Here's the spreadsheet...

As you can see, group 5 managed to answer all their questions correctly. Group 9 were unable to answer question 7 as there weren't any questions left - some groups needed a spare as they had scribbled all over theirs. I put the topics of each question on the xls too so the class could see what was coming up!




If you do use this idea it'd be great to here how and how the lesson went for your class. Oh, and remember to thank @Ms_Kmp for the idea and to visit her blog http://mathssandpit.co.uk/blog/.

Circle Theorems & Hula Hoops!!

Inspired by @MrReddyMaths' guest blog post by @adrianjohnst on his blog my Y10 class have been creating Circle Theorems using Hula Hoops bought at 'Pound World' today!!

To see Adrian's blog post click http://mrreddy.com/blog/2012/12/guest-blog-circle-theorems-and-hula-hoops/

To visit the 'Pound World' website go to http://poundworld.net/. This lesson/blog post is part of my experimentation with #poundlandpedagogy.

This was our 1st lesson back after the Easter holidays and with a few personnel changes to the set due to recent mock results I felt it would be a good idea to revise over a few topics this week to get the class back into the swing of things and to provide links to the topics in the Unit 2 paper that we still need to cover. Another reason for looking at Circle Theorems again is because I didn't feel the class learnt enough when we covered them the first time round, the lesson, for whatever reason, didn't seem to sink in and so we needed to do more work here - the question/s that have come up in mock papers the class have done weren't fantastically well answered, as a whole group.

So, I started the lesson by using my Mathematics 4 pics 1 word Circle Theorems resource - see my previous blog post http://mrcollinsmaths.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/mathematics-4-pics-1-word-circle.html (there's a link in this post to my resource on the TES available for download). I then, using the words in the starter activity went over the circle theorems on the board. I also had, on the tables prior to the class coming in, a sheet of QR Codes that linked to my Circle Theorem videos on my YouTube Channel (mrcollinsmaths). The idea then was for the class to use the videos and the notes I had written on the board to recreate one of the Circle Theorems. I asked groups to volunteer for a particular circle theorem at this point and this created a bit of competition with certain groups wanting to do certain Theorems over others. Once the groups had their circle theorems assigned I showed them (in the style of 'Blue Peter') one I had made early to model what it was I was expecting. Having thought about it now, I should have shown them Mr Reddy's blog post (darn hindsight)!

So, here's one I made earlier...

I used a few of my other purchases at 'Pound World' including the 'Memo Cube' 'post-its' (however these aren't sticky) and the masking tape to secure the rods.

The rods I got from our awesome D&T department. I luckily caught one of the NQT teachers in the car park and told him what I was planning to do - we then went to the D&T workshops and sliced up some wooden rods they had lying around so I could use these as the tangents, chords, radii, diameters etc! These were a great help and it pays to know all the departments in your school - you never know when you're going to need to call on them for help!

This 'model' then gave the class the basis of what I was looking for. After a short health and safety warning about splinters I gave the groups their hula hoop, wooden rods and sellotape/masking tape etc. At this point I had quite a few of our faculty in the room as I had invited them in if they were free to see what we were doing (and give me a hand). A few of them went and found us some extra sellotape as the masking tape wasn't great for holding the parts in place. Nonetheless, look what the class created...

 Angles drawn from the same point

 Angles drawn from the same chord

Angle in a semi-circle (angle at the circumference is half the angle at the centre)

 Cyclic Quadrilateral (opposite angles = 180 degrees)

Angle at the circumference is half the angle at the centre











After the class had been given 15-20 minutes to complete their circle theorem hula hoops I asked one representative from each group to explain to the rest of the class what circle theorem they had done, explain the relative parts of each etc. I then collected them all in and handed out to the class a set of circle theorem past paper questions from the 'bland.in' website. The class then used my YouTube video and all the Theorems (now on the floor of the wall at the front of the class) to answer the questions. I was particularly impressed at this point that some of the class had got our previous lessons notes out of their exercise books to refer to too!

Here's all of them at the front of the class & the QR Codes sheet and questions I gave the class...

 All of them, at the front as a reference - I just need to 'hang'/ put these up on one of the walls in the room for future use!

Here's the QR Code sheet I made the class. The centre QR Code links to the playlist on my YouTube Channel with all the explanations and some past paper question solutions. The 6 QR Codes round the centre one link to a specific theorem.







I (and I hope the class) really enjoyed this lesson. I feel they were much more secure with their knowledge of circle theorems at the end of the lesson having gone over the answers to the questions in the 'plenary'.
I know need some more Hula Hoops to do a session on Venn Diagrams (as suggested by a few of my Twitter followers following my #poundlandpedagogy tweets)!

GCSE Revision - 'Tip of the Iceberg'

Earlier in the year, late January, I observed a 'literacy exhibition lesson' that one of our school's English ASTs put on for teachers to attend if they were free and able to do so.

As literacy across the curriculum is a key push by our school this year there have a been a number of these lessons put on by our ASTs and I this is the 1st post of the lessons I have observed and will write about.
Another pull to observe this lesson is that the class that were being taught included a few of my Y11 class, some of which I had, at the time, only recently started to teach after our sets were changed due to recent examination results. So, I had the added bonus of seeing some of my students in another lesson, which I have found extremely useful in the past - how they act/react to a different teacher/subject etc.

The lesson itself was about the class revising for their English GCSE examinations and answering a GCSE question, focusing on structuring an answer and also on analytical skills.

The lesson started with an image of an iceberg of the board. The teacher asked what they could see on the board. This lead to a discussion on the 'tip of the iceberg' and how this was the 'explicit' part of a GCSE question - what it's literally telling/asking you to do. The rest of the iceberg, and majority, was the implicit part of the GCSE question, what is being implied by the question and what is it you need to do/show that they're not actually telling you in order to answer the question.

For example if you saw a question involving an image of a triangle and the question said 'Find x' you would explicitly be asked to work out the missing value of the length of the triangle marked x. What could be implied is that you need to use Pythagoras' Theorem in order to do this.

The lesson then continued to look at some images and the teacher asked the class what was implied by the images. One of the images was of a red rose. The suggestions the class came back with were: danger, love, death, anger, fragility, pride (the English rugby team's logo), beauty etc. Lots of areas here for discussion with each that were explored as the teacher questioned why they had chosen their given suggestion. What was key to this activity is the teacher used a lot of encouraging language to entice the students; 'there are no wrong answers', 'you're not wrong', your opinion can never be wrong' were just some of the phrases that were used.
The teacher then asked how they explain what is beneath the surface and then referred the class to a flipchart which had a load of analytical vocabulary. The class would later be looking out for this vocab in a written answer to the question they would then be asked to answer themselves.

After this, the teacher showed the class an image of a burger and used it to symbolise the stages in structuring an essay answer. The bun was the 'point' they were making, the burger/filling would then be the 'quote' the students would use to back up their point and then the other bun was their 'comment' explaining their point. This was when the exam question ('how does John Agard use imagery in Flag to present attitudes to conflict') was showed on the IWB and the teacher, having given a copy out to each student, asked them to highlight the 3 parts of the example answer and then highlight any analytical language that was used within the answer. This was key to setting the class up to then write their own answer to the question, or (quite nicely) another question of their choosing from the same poem they were studying. There was a brief 'it's quiet work now' before the class then got on with writing their own answers to the question/their chosen question. After the class were given time to do this they were welcomed to read out their answers and students were asked to listen out for their analytical vocabulary.

Whilst the class were working, and throughout the lesson, I was thinking of how I can get the lesson into one of my Mathematics lessons, something that being a Mathematics teacher doesn't necessarily come naturally! I've always thought that getting literacy into a Mathematics lesson is as difficult as getting numeracy into an English lesson!

However, I related everything the teacher did to the Mathematics GCSE paper. Sometimes students fall short as they do not understand what the question is asking them to do. This is often the case where you see questions that just give an equation and say 'Solve'. That is the only information the student is given - to solve the equation. But how? How do they solve the equation, what do they need to do...this is what is implied by the question by what sort of equation they are given. This is what I wanted to look at with my Y11 class and so I thought about 'the tip of an iceberg'...

I decided that I would simply, like in the above observed lesson, start my lesson by showing the class an image that they are likely to see in a GCSE examination paper -  right-angled triangle. From this I started to think of all the things the class could be asked to do and same up with this double sided piece of A3 paper...(the possibilities are seemingly endless, but did my students know this?)

It took me a while to sit down and think of all the possible questions/topics that could involve a right-angled triangle, I was surprised by how many possibilities/variations there could be...just from a right-angled triangle!

'Front and back'!

















Having planned all the different things I could cover with the class in the lesson I started to put together a notebook file using the topics I felt the class would need to revise. Here are the initial few slides I showed the class...

This was my 'starter' slide. The amount of things the class suggested in terms of what they may be asked to do (what was implied/suggested by the image) were fantastic. It was also a way of me asking certain questions to gauge what they may have already known about certain topics

I used the 'tip of the iceberg' image the teacher used in the lesson I observed to show some continuity across the school to those students we both teach. I used this opportunity to praise those students in the lesson for their answers in the literacy lesson.

This is one of the slides I used to see if the class knew what they would be asked to do (explicitly stated in the exam question, i.e. rotate the shape 90 degrees about the point (1, 2)) Then, ask them what that implied they'd need to do? i.e. use their knowledge of coordinates and rotations - how do they rotate a shape?  etc
I then, after their suggestions as to what they may be asked to do, and then how they would do it, what they might need to use etc I revealed all the different things they could be asked to do with the image/question presented

I then gave the class some questions involving working out the perimeters/areas of triangles using Integers, decimals, fractions - these questions would test whether they would be able to multiply/add decimals and fractions - something that would be implied by the question just by the values they are given.

Finally, for the 'plenary' of the lesson, I showed the class this slide and gave them each a piece of A3 paper to fill in a 'mind map' style revision sheet based on the image I showed them right at the start of the lesson. They then would take this home and finish it off for 'homework'/their own revision.

 

I have added this, and a similar 'circles' tip of the iceberg resource to my TES resources for anybody to download (get them both, in the same resource, here) if they feel this may be something that would suit their classes. Both slides include loads of different topics/images to see what the class would glean from them.

 

I found this to be an excellent way of finding out what students might already know/not know on a given topic that was suggested from the original image shown at the start of the lesson. Then in the lesson itself, using the carefully planned activities, I was able to see if they knew lots of other facts/information by asking them to work with fractions, decimals, percentages (for higher students - surds) etc.

 

Hopefully, it also enabled my students to interpret the examination questions better too, looking for all the information in the question to help them understand what it may be that they are being asked to do - what the question is implying.

 

Let me know if you use the resource, if you make any amendments to it or have done something similar. Thanks to 'JB' for his lesson mentioned above, it provided me with the inspiration to create the resources for my own lessons, and hopefully has helped me build in literacy to my Mathematics lessons?!

GCSE Revision Sessions - Passport to a [insert grade]!

I have recently been completing a series of documents for a new and exciting project the TES Maths Panel have been working on...watch this space for more information!

Whilst I have been doing this project, which has involved me searching through the resources on the TES I have come across a bloody brilliant idea... mrslack_maths' Passport to...

You can download the resource here.

I believe this resource would be great for revision sessions and this is exactly what I've been in the process of planning for next Tuesday with Y11. So, taking inspiration from Mr Slack Maths I have created my own version of the passport resource for the students I will be taking for the revision session. My revision session is to be aimed at those students that have either already gained a C Grade or are aiming for a B grade 1st time round. So, I have created a 'Passport to a B Grade +' resource, very much like Mr Slack Maths' that I will be giving to each of the students in my session.

Here's how the front/back cover look...

 















and here's how the centre of the passport looks...

I intend on printing the two pages front and back to make the passports.

As you can see, I have taken the B grade topics from the Edexcel 2MB01 Unit 3 spec. This is because some of the students will be sitting this paper and others will be sitting the Linear spec, both of which will cover these topics. There's only so much I'll be able to cover in the session and so I've opted for those topics that I feel students will be likely to come up against/will grasp fairly quickly. There will be some students that having scrapped a C grade earlier in the year will struggle with some of these topics, I'm thinking particularly the trigonometry/circle theorems questions.

What I have also done is put a QR Code next to each 'objective'. These link to my mrcollinsmaths YouTube Channel videos I have created today, specifically for the session. All of these videos can be viewed in one playlist entitled 'aiming for a B grade and beyond'. There are some that I haven't done yet and I'm in two minds as to whether I will, or whether, for those topics, I cover them in the revision session; I can see a few students potentially suggesting that the work has been done for them and so why be there at all - they'll take the passport, and my hard work, and do it at home!?
So, for some of the topics they'll need to be there for the session to be taught it. Of course, I'll be reinforcing and complimenting the videos too in the session - by no means do I believe the kids will watch the videos and therefore be 100% able to do those questions!

Like Mr Slack Maths suggests in his resource on the TES, I will be stamping the students' passports as they 'complete' certain 'objectives'. This will be by means of them completing some past paper questions that I will print off for them using the following website... http://www.bland.in/GCSE%20Maths/ (thanks to Will Emeny (@Maths_Master) for originally blogging/tweeting about this site)
This website groups past exam questions into a selection of topics and will provide the practice the students will need.

Remember my stamp from my http://mrcollinsreflectivejournal.blogspot.com blog last year? It's still going strong! (available from http://www.primaryteaching.co.uk/)
Each objective will be 'stamped' once students have successfully answered a sufficient amount of questions on the topic.

Rewards can then be given, either each time they get a stamp, or for the student/s that manage to get the most amount of stamps?!







I may run the session (2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon) using the passport and get students to work through 'a page at a time'. So, they'd focus on the first page's 4 objectives first, pick one they need practise on or choose one to start with, watch the video or come to the front where I'll go through the topic and then they have the questions to answer. In this way I'll be able to focus on a few topics at a time rather than giving them free reign of any of the topics.

I will, of course, post a follow up to this post once I have done my session to let you know (those that are interested) of how it all went!

THANKS ONCE AGAIN TO 'mrslack_maths' FOR HIS EXCELLENT IDEA!

If you're running a revision session this week/in the near future it'd be great to find out what you've done in your sessions...let me know, comment below or tweet me @mrprcollins.