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To C and beyond…
how to motivate students and help boost their confidence by going ‘beyond the staples’.
Zeenat Hashim 
Commissioned by The PiXL Club Ltd.
October 2013
© Copyright The PiXL Club Ltd, Year
This resource is strictly for the use of member schools for as long as they remain members of The PiXL Club. It may not be copied, sold nor transferred to a third party or used by the school after membership ceases. Until such time it may be freely used within the member school.
All opinions and contributions are those of the authors. The contents of this resource are not connected with nor endorsed by any other company, organisation or institution.
The PiXL Club Ltd, Company number

2. To C and beyond…

3. … beyond the staples

4. Students who are borderline or below often
lack confidence
Have issues with recall/knowledge of the ‘basics’ -multiplication tables, fractions, ratio etc.
feel they are ‘stupid’ at Maths
are only taught to focus on the ‘easier’ topics at Higher tier to get their C

5. But my students really are weak …they couldn’t cope with anything harder

6. Which is why, in addition to getting the basics right- we also need to help them increase their confidence, and become more motivated so that they themselves feel they can tackle more challenging work.

7. Many students who fail to get the C are usually only within a few marks
Show them how they can get those extra marks by going for questions beyond the staples…

8. Surely they will find this too difficult and it will de-motivate them?

9. Taking them ‘beyond the staples’ helps increase their confidence and in turn can do wonders for their motivation
Students can often access the first mark of some questions- this leads to a better chance to make up the marks to get the C.

10. How do I make it work?
Show them how to answer the first part of a question on a more ‘difficult’ topic- eg Vectors.
Practise with them until they understand.
Check their understanding with a test question.
Then tell them what grade it is.
Watch their confidence rise- they can do some of the ‘harder’ Maths.
This is now where they might surprise you by wanting to go for the second part of a question- or be keen to take on other topics- like tree diagrams/probability
Emphasise the importance of practising what they have learnt- without this nothing will work- without practise they will not be able to do this in the exam
Show them where the question appears in the paper- i.e. beyond the staples. Show them how to recognise the parts of the questions they can do.

11. So which topics should I focus on getting students to work on?

13. Vectors (a)Write down, in terms of a and b, an expression for
B1 for a - b oe

14. Probability tree diagrams
Emma has 7 pens in a box. 5 of the pens are blue. 2 of the pens are red. Emma takes at random a pen from the box and writes down its colour. Emma puts the pen back in the box. Then Emma takes at random a second pen from the box, and writes down its colour. (a) Complete the probability tree diagram. (2) (b) Work out the probability that Emma takes exactly one pen of each colour from the box. (3)

15. Upper and lower bounds Dan does an experiment to find the value of π.
He measures the circumference and the diameter of a circle.
He measures the circumference, C, as 170 mm to the nearest millimetre.
He measures the diameter, d, as 54 mm to the nearest millimetre.
Dan uses π = to find the value of π.
Calculate the upper bound and the lower bound for Dan’s value of π.
B1 for any one correct bound quoted
d: UB = 54.5 (or ), LB = 53.5
C: UB = (or ), LB = 169.5

16. Rearranging formulae Make p the subject of the formula y = 3p2 – 4.
M1 for clear intention to add 4 to both sides or divide all terms by 3(with at least 3 terms)
Note: if a question requires multiplying out brackets then this will also gain a mark

17. Box plots Some girls did a sponsored swim to raise money for charity.
 The table shows information about the amounts of money (£) the girls raised.
On the grid, draw a box plot for the information in the table.
(2)
Question gives a box plot for boys and then asks for a comparison- if they can compare the medians, range, IQR then this is a further 2 marks
Least amount of money (£) 10
Greatest amount of money (£) 45
Median 25
Lower quartile 16
Upper quartile 42

18. Histograms
The incomplete table and histogram give some information about the heights (in cm) of some sunflowers. (a) Use the histogram to complete the table. (2) (b) Use the table to complete the histogram.
Height (h cm)
Frequency
100 < h  130 30
130 < h  150
150 < h  160
160 < h  180 40
180 < h  210 18

19. Standard form, laws of indices, powers
Simplify t6 × t (1)
(b) Simplify (1)
Simplify (2x)3 (2)
(d) Simplify 3a2h × 4a5h4 (2)

20. Standard form, laws of indices, powers ctd
(a) Write in standard form (1)
(b) Write in standard form (1)

21. You may say…

22. They might be able to do it once- but they’ll forget in the exam…

23. You may say…

24. It’ll never work…these students are too weak to access topics beyond the staples

25. Here’s what worked …
students who were on D, E,F at the end of year 10:
Started by increasing their confidence with the basics, then showing them there are things they can do beyond the staples
The difference in confidence and motivation- unbelievable- they were putting in much more extra time and even trying out topics on their own at home
The result: 4 of these students not only reached their C- they exceeded it and got a B. Many of the others got a C.

26. P-P-T …R Repeat if necessary Put in the time and
for students
P-P-T …R
Put in the time and
Practise questions -then
Test your understanding
Repeat if necessary

27. for teachers DTT Diagnosis, therapy, testing
Don’t just give them the intervention and cross your fingers that they will remember it …test their understanding after intervention- not just at that time- but a day/week/month later