How we teach Maths

How we teach Maths.

Wednesday 20th October.

Teaching for Mastery in Mathematics. Maths teaching for mastery rejects the idea that a large proportion of people ‘just can’t do maths. All pupils are encouraged by the belief that by working hard at maths, they can succeed.

A Mastery Curriculum. All/most pupils can and will achieve. Keeping the class working together to enable all to master mathematics. Development of deep mathematical knowledge. Development of both factual/procedural and conceptual fluency. Planning to spend longer time on key topics.

In order to keep the class together, We move forward in small steps and make sure that children are secure on one step before we move onto the next. We use lots of practical resources. We use pre-teaching, that is, we take a small group of children who we anticipate will struggle with a lesson and introduce the concepts ahead of the lesson so that they are more confident when they come across them again later in the actual lesson. We take groups of children after a lesson if they need further help and go over the concepts again.

When there are children who are completely secure, We have a large number of challenges on each topic to enable them to develop a deeper understanding.

Many of the children have gaps in their knowledge due to lockdown. We check the children’s understanding of a comparable objective from the previous year. (Ready to Progress criteria). If they know what they are doing, we can move on with this year’s learning. If they are struggling, we teach content from the previous year until they are ready to tackle this year’s material. The Government has prioritised some areas of the curriculum over others.

Example of Ready to progress criteria

Fluency. Quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics. Times tables Speedy maths (single digit addition) Pairs of numbers that add up to 10, 20, 100

Teach Active For example, make a rectangle with a perimeter of 10m.

We do some Teach Active Maths lessons which involve moving around, usually outside. In this challenge, most of the groups that I did it with were able to make a rectangle with a perimeter of 10m using cones and a trundle wheel , but one group confused length with perimeter. They could see clearly that their rectangle was different from everyone else’s and it was a good learning experience.

3m 2m

2m 3m 10m

Consistency. We use the same methods from one year to the next.

For example, column addition starting in Year 2 (tens and ones), through Year 3 (hundreds, tens and ones) to Year 4 (thousands, hundreds tens and ones). And we use the same books that show the same representations (White Rose and Maths NoProblem!) And the same resources (Numicon, Dienes, etc.)

Year 1 Part Whole Model 2 5

3

The children come across this representation in Year 1 and so when they see it later in the school (such as in Year 4 – see the next two slides) they understand what is required.

Year 4

Year 4