Tag Archives: revision

141. Book(s) of the week 3

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If you remember ‘The Wonder Years’ you are probably old enough to remember grunge the first time around and television programmes that didn’t involve so called ‘Reality TV’.

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So what happens to female child stars?

Some have a rocky youth, work really hard and become hugely successful (Drew Barrymore). Some have a rocky youth and become hugely notorious (Lindsay Lohan). Some work really hard, do research, writing and acting, have a theorem named after them and become advocates for women and maths education!

Step forward Danica McKellar!

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Apart from playing ‘Winnie Cooper’ in ‘The Wonder Years’, Danica is also a successful mathematician. She has written four books aimed at promoting maths to high school students, in particular girls. I strongly suggest you have a look at them or get your school library to purchase them as they are full of inspirational ideas and new ways to think about ‘dusty’ topics.

Her books to date are:

Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape (2013)

Hot X: Algebra Exposed! (2011)

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Maths Doesn’t Suck: How to survive year 6 through year 9 maths without losing your mind or breaking a nail (2010)

Kiss my Math: Showing Pre-Algebra who’s boss (2009)

136. Quiz-Its

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Here’s a simple starter/revision activity. All you need is Post-it notes.

Hand out Post-its as the class arrive.

Once they have got their things out they each write four questions on a topic of your choice. Encourage them to make the questions challenging. Once that’s done tell them they need to write the answer lightly in pencil on the back.

Stick all the Post-its on a table or wall.
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Everyone then collects a Post-it (or Qwiz-it) to answer (not their own).

Once they’ve answered, they can check their answer. If the answers don’t match, who is correct? Why?

This can lead to discussions about question-style, methods, misconceptions and understanding.

134. Revising around in Circles

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Ah … beloved GCSE students. Why does revising feel like I’m just reteaching a topic for the Nth time?

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I’ve been trying some new ideas out on my GCSE group. One of the more popular ones ideas, for an unpopular topic, were these Circle Theorems fact cards. Students were given four cards with a diagram and an open question, for example: What is special about angles ABD and ACD? In the gap, they had to answer the question. They soon realised that the answers they had written were the theorems that they’d learnt. Their solutions had popped into their heads, without being bogged down by number stress. They could then try number questions, referring back to these fact cards if they got stuck.

117. Circle facts

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I sometimes despair when I read through students’ exercise books. A brilliant explanation or set of revision notes are let down by poor diagrams – especially when you are working on circle theorems. I’m also suspicious of handing out perfectly typed notes because I’m sure they don’t get properly read.

I’ve taken both these issues and put together a C grade Circle Theorems Fact finder sheet. The diagrams are printed, but the theories are missing. Students need to write the missing facts in their own words. This processing of information should consolidate their understanding.

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Download it from here.

87. QR teaching

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Revision is a tricky business! Everyone needs something different – it is the ultimate manifestation of personalised learning.
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As you will have seen from previous posts I’m not averse to chopping up exam papers or using technology to make things interesting. I also recommend YouTube videos for different revision topics.

This week I started printing QR codes, linking to online resources, onto stickers and attaching them to worksheets/books.

All pupils need is a smartphone/ipad with a barcode scanner installed. They can access the extra material whenever it is appropriate and the alternative explanations can be useful. It also helps keep pupils on task while you are helping others.

I used QRstuff.com as you can print directly to stickers (you can download them as .png files too), however there are many other sites available. If you scan the QR code above, you can access the QRstuff site too.

80. Sunshine and constructions

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Here is a quick consolidation/revision/application task for constructions, which involves very little preparation. If the sun isn’t shining you could always adapt this for indoors.

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Equipment
Chunky chalk (look in your local pound shop)
String
Straight edge and tape measure or just a metre stick
Usual classroom textbook/notes

Task
A company has sketched out a set of new signs and it is your job to accurately draw them without a protractor. The task is differentiated by sign design.

Sign 1
Made from a rectangle and two equilateral triangles.

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Sign 2
Same as sign 1, but with a border of constant width

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Sign 3
Made from a rectangle, an equilateral triangle and a right angled isosceles triangle.

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Sign 4
Same as sign 3, with a border of constant width.

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Skills used:
Constructing an equilateral triangle (1,2,3,4)
Constructing the locus of a moving point (2,4)
Bisecting an angle (3,4)
Constructing a perpendicular bisector (optional in all cases)

Activity
Once the signs are allocated, each group must present a plan to the teacher on how they will draw it. They may use their notes, textbooks and smartphones (if your school allows this).

When the groups are outside, they can easily increase their understanding by moving on to the next design or developing their own arrows.

Examples of work

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Health Warning!
These signs, when viewed from the end, can look rather like rockets. All I will say is:
rockets + construction arcs + pink chalk + teenager boys’ level of humour= ….

73. Calculators: The New Hope

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Shameless Stars Wars reference!

To explain: My Foundation GCSE class are finally realising that if they work, they might just get that elusive Grade D or even C. This is my ‘Hope’. They have been doing well with the D to C essential skills sheets by @MathedUp and are developing a positive attitude.

The ‘New’ thing is they have shown an interest in knowing how their* calculators work, for the calculator paper.

‘You mean that little button will work out powers for me?’!

* When I say their calculator I of course mean mine – they haven’t got as far as bringing in theirs from home!

Activity
I used Google images to find a clear picture of the calculators we use in school. I put it in the middle of a page and surrounded it with common calculator topics/problems:

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We discussed how to use the calculator with each problem. The best students labelled the buttons, gave instructions on how to use them and even asked me for simple examples for each case. This is an example of a pupil’s sheet:

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I was very impressed by their attention to detail. I gave them no instruction on what to write and they produced good revision resources. This would be a good activity for KS3 as well as D/C border students.

 

Update: 21st November 2013

My worksheet is available here: How to use a Calculator