Learning & Teaching A Level Mathematics Colleen Young

Learning & Teaching A Level Mathematics Colleen Young

Colleen Young Colleen Young colleenyoung.wordpress.com

What has changed? Summary of changes Specifications Mapping documents

Colleen Young Colleen Young Select Specifications & Support & also individual exam board pages.

In simple terms: think about the best order to teach topics Because all the examinations are at the end of the course, no topic can be forgotten about at any stage of the course. In simple terms: think about the best order to teach topics include opportunities for revisiting topics allow time for revision Return to contents

Lesson Planning Plan lessons for student learning

Colleen Young Colleen Young Select Lesson Planning & also individual exam board pages.

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Lesson Starters Bell Work Ideas for Starters and Plenaries

Select A Level Resources

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Making it Stick See Low Stakes Testing in the Mathematics Classroom Help students to recall information. See Low Stakes Testing in the Mathematics Classroom

Making it Stick Low stakes tests are really good because there is not much pressure and at the end of them I can see how I’m doing and what I need to improve on for later formal tests. Going through and marking tests / homework.

Good Teachers ..make it stick A teacher who provides the student with the opportunity to see what they need to revise. Regular tests and quizzes do this. Tests that don’t have further impact on levels / grades. Just there for you to know what you don’t know.

Low Stakes Testing in the Mathematics Classroom Survey results pages 63-83 Source: Placeholder example

Talk to students about how we learn and how to study effectively Cognitive Science Talk to students about how we learn and how to study effectively Return to contents Learning Scientists Study Strategies

Lesson Activities

Select A Level Resources

Lesson Activities When thinking about new specifications remember Carol Dweck’s wise words: “The outcomes are natural byproducts of engaging in good practice.” …and of course read /do all those specifications and practice papers rather carefully.

Lesson Activities “It strikes me that the most able students need to be in a state of regular bafflement, enjoying the fact that they are wrestling with new concepts, and having the confidence to know that they will resolve confusions with a bit (maybe quite a bit) of mental effort.” Simon Singh Simon Singh answering some questions on Mathematics Teaching Return to contents

Underground Mathematics Underground Mathematics aims to “Enable all students to explore the connections that underpin mathematics”. 

We have thought of 13 circles We have thought of 13 circles. 11 of them are drawn accurately on the above graph. Here are the equations of 11 of the original 13 circles.

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Stem Centre Hand-picked resources to cover key subject content in Pure, Mechanics and Statistics.

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Standards Unit “Our first aim in designing this resource is to make mathematics teaching more effective by challenging learners to become more active participants.” Malcolm Swan

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Nrich Nrich offers challenging and engaging activities. One of its aims is to develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills

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teachitmaths Worksheets, exercises, investigations and games. Tried and tested resources created and edited by maths teachers

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Further Resources Further sources of resources

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Use of Technology The use of technology, in particular mathematical and statistical graphing tools and spreadsheets, must permeate the study of AS and A level mathematics

Open GeoGebra, here the desktop app is being used Open GeoGebra, here the desktop app is being used. Select the spreadsheet view. Note that you can toggle views to display or not.

Copy data from your spreadsheet application into the spreadsheet view on GeoGebra. In this example column D is selected

Choose One Variable Analysis. Then select Analyse.

Having selected Analyze, we immediately see a Histogram of the data. Right clicking on that window gives the option to copy the data to the Graphics View

Or we could choose a boxplot Outlier Bob age 138! A little clean up of the data needed perhaps!

Or, using the newer Maths Calculators interface; a good idea for consistency across all platforms… Choose spreadsheet…

Choose spreadsheet… Copy in that data and you have one histogram!

We could choose to have a 2nd plot

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Vocabulary & Notation Make sure key vocabulary and notation is defined, understood and used by all

Vocabulary & Notation Reference for Students Return to contents

Colleen Young