339. Broken rotation

This is a quick post following a discussion in the office today. The prompt was a colleague asking “How do you teach rotation to a child with two broken arms?”

The last ‘child’ I taught with two broken arms was a sixth former and it involved profuse photocopying of notes.

But back to the problem. You could cut out shapes and rotate them on a gridded whiteboard. The student could get a feel for what was going on and be part of the whiteboard Q& A session. For the main classwork, photocopy the worksheet or textbook and increase it to A3. Make a second colour copy and cut out the shapes in the questions. The student can then move these into the correct places to answer the questions. The work could then be photographed, emailled to the teacher or printed out.

Of course I do mean use a phone to take a picture, because it’ll take more than two broken arms to stop a teenager using their mobile phone.

(BTW I’m not making light of the student’s problem. It’s important we think around these issues to ensure all students can access the curriculum)

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