Learning & Teaching A Level MathematicsColleen Young

Colleen Young

Learning & Teaching A Level Mathematics

Colleen YoungColleen Young

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Summary of changes

Specifications

Mapping documents

What has changed?

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Select Specifications & Support & also individual exam board pages.

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

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Plan lessons for student learningLesson

Planning

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Select Lesson Planning & also individual exam board pages.

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Bell Work

Ideas for Starters and Plenaries

Lesson Starters

Select A Level Resources

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Help students to

recall

information.

Making itStick

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.

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.

Good Teachers ..make it stick

42• Source: Placeholder example

Low Stakes Testing in the Mathematics ClassroomSurvey results pages 63-83

Talk to students about how we learn

and how to study effectively

Learning Scientists Study Strategies

Cognitive Science

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Lesson Activities

Select A Level Resources

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

Lesson Activities

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Simon Singh answering some questions on Mathematics Teaching

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

UndergroundMathematics

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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Hand-picked

resources to

cover key

subject content

in Pure,

Mechanics and

Statistics.

Stem Centre

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

Malcolm Swan

StandardsUnit

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Nrich offers challenging and engaging activities.

One of its aims is to develop mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills

Nrich

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

teachitmaths

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Further sources of resourcesFurther

Resources

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

Use of Technology

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

A little clean up of the data needed perhaps!

Outlier Bob age 138!

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

Vocabulary & Notation

Reference for Students

Vocabulary & Notation

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Colleen Young