Tag Archives: revision

41. Revision traffic lights

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Visual revision aid today!

I asked my GCSE students to ‘traffic light’ all the learning objectives from the course. The categories were:
Red – I really need help with this.
Amber – I’m okay with this, but I will need to revise before trying exam questions.
Green – I’m fine to try GCSE questions on this.

They worked together to write up their top responses on coloured paper. There are two of each colour so they didn’t get too crammed.

Now I know where they need help/ a confidence boost and the class can see their concerns addressed as we work through their lists. Of course, I’ll add in topics they missed.

This activity gives them a sense of ownership of their learning.

38. Quick Constructions

A quick idea today.

Most Maths Departments use squared paper exercise books. Great for lots of mathematical concepts, but not constructions.

How many times have you seen a perpendicular bisector drawn using the right angle from the squared paper with some freehand scrawled ‘construction’ lines?

The solution to this topic is so simple – use plain paper. But then they forget to stick in their book or lose it!

The best activity I have used is to use folded A4 plain paper for the whole constructions topic. Pupils must annotate their work with instructions and revision hints. When you finish, you give them a coloured paper or card cover to attach. You could include a printed summary of skills on it.

The final homework is to illustrate the cover of the booklet with their favourite technique or related design.

This task is so easy to do, involves little preparation, creates a useful revision resource and promotes independent learning.

(The diagram is from BBC bitesize website which has some nice revision activities on this)

19. Fraction Skills Foldable

This resource was designed to recap basic fraction skills as part of KS4 revision. The foldable covers:
1. Addition with common denominator
2. Addition with different denominators (butterfly method)
3. Subtraction with different denominators (butterfly method)
4. Subtraction with mixed numbers
5. Multiplication
6. Multiplication with mixed numbers
7. Division (reciprocal method)
8. Division of a whole number by a fraction

It also deals with equivalent fractions, simplifying and converting between mixed & improper fractions.

Each section has a title, method and example.

This is a draft ‘teacher’ version. My students made theirs look really good with different colours, highlighter and their own examples.

Note: this isn’t for teaching a full understanding of fraction manipulation, just summarising facts.

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