Cameron Setter

It's been a bit of a mad first week back this term. Stress levels are high with the year 11s and 13s very close to their exams. For them lessons have been revising the advance information topics.  One of the issues I've found with the A level Maths is that students are often unsure what the questions are actually asking them to do.  A strategy I have been using is goal free problems. If you're unsure what they are take a look at the following website . The basic idea is that I'm giving students just the description and perhaps a diagram and ask them to just work stuff out. I find it particularly effective for topics within Mechanics especially.  Initially students struggled with what to do as to they wanted a target to aim for. After doing it for a little while now they are finding it really useful and are often calculating values to hat is beyond what the question actually was. They are making generalities with topics and styles of questions and have massively improved

I have stopped using a Prime factor tree when teaching Prime Factor Decomposition and so should you! Here's why: 1. Students mix up Frequency trees and Prime Factor trees.  2. Students don't always realise that the prime numbers are the 'building blocks' of the number and they just need to complete the tree to get the mark. 3. Incorrectly writing their final answer. What I now do: It still looks very similar but I have a big focus on rewriting the original number each time and using a line for each step of their workings. For some students I have used little arrows to show which numbers need to be split further and underlined the prime numbers so they can more clearly identify what their next step is. I explicitly teach about using the numbers to 'go backwards' and find other factors e.g. 3 x 2 x 2 = 12 which is a factor of 72. I show students how no matter the starting point, we still end up with the same building blocks e.g. if we started with 2 x 36 we would

What if I said you could teach your students one thing and they could answer everything to do with Percentages? Don't believe me? Let me show you: Finding a percentage of an amount Q: Find 20% of 925 Increasing/Decreasing by a percentage Q: Decrease 45 by 16% Expressing as a percentage Q: A cereal bar weighs 24g. The cereal bar contains 3.6g of protein. Work out what percentage of the cereal bar is protein Percentage Change Q: Rebecca bought a dress for £80.  She later sold it for £116. Find the percentage profit. Reverse Percentages Q: A car increases in value by 35% to £2500. What was its original price? Ratio tables can be used for it all. There is obviously going to need to be some further teaching about what an increase/decrease is, how to work out the multiplier etc, but it is a great tool we should all be using more often You may have worked out by now that I like using Ratio tables. 

I've been spending the first week of Easter holidays completely switching off from work and focusing on the time I spend with my family. A highlight has been visiting the different museums nearby. My 2 year old son has loved seeing all of the dinosaurs, animals, ships, cars and even the Egyptian mummy!  He's telling me all about them and, even though he says he's seen lots of mouses, he understands so much and is constantly amazing me with his communication! Next week I'm already planning more adventures and don't intend to look at any work until Sunday night at the earliest. I want a complete switch off and to be present with my family.    📚 Read: James Clears blog post about how measurement can help to raise our awareness of things that can be improved. Read it here . 📚 Read: Colin Fosters first post as MA president about 'introducing and outroducing'. We need to get students over the hump of learning the new skill so they can reap the benefits in the lo

Want to improve literacy in your Maths department? These 4 links will show you how: 1. From the education hub in New Zealand. It outlines some ways in which secondary school teachers may develop and enhance learning through a disciplinary literacy approach https://theeducationhub.org.nz/literacy-across-the-curriculum-at-secondary-school/ 2. Fantastic blog post giving concrete examples of how literacy could be improved in Maths https://clarefeeneyuk.com/?p=69 3. EEF produced this guidance to help improve literacy. There are some great questions to use both in your own teaching but also with your department. https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/eef-guidance-reports/literacy-ks3-ks4/EEF_KS3_KS4_LITERACY_GUIDANCE.pdf?v=1635355220 4. Also check out my own blog post on improving Literacy in Maths. I am hoping to add further examples and support over time.  https://cameronsetter.blogspot.com/2022/04/literacy-in-maths.html

Pressure and Density (like Speed) is not taught very well! Pressure and Density have a proportional relationship that can be modelled effectively using a Ratio table, just like Speed. Below are some examples: Density Q: A cylinder has a mass of 270g. It has a density of 3g/cm^3. Find the volume of the cylinder Pressure  Q: An object is placed on the ground and exerts a force of 3000N on an area of 4m². Work out its pressure on the ground. Ratio tables become more effective when combining compound measure . It can help give students a frame for their workings. My class were able to answer questions similar to this with no mention of a triangle or even a formula! Compound Measures are a great example of an area of Maths that is often taught at a surface level using formula triangles. For students to gain a greater understanding of the relationships between mass-volume, distance-time and force-area use a ratio table. 

Finally at the end of what seems like the longest term so far! With staff absence, job interviews, mock exams it just seems like things have been non-stop!  I will definitely be using the 2 weeks off at Easter to rest up, not think about work at all and put myself in the right frame of mind ready for another tough term with GCSE exams right around the corner. In the build up to the GCSE's we have provided students with lots of resources to help them to revise e.g. past papers, websites etc but one thing struck me that I hadn't thought about. A number of students aren't clear on the best ways to revise. I even had one student tell me that he just highlights the revision guide! I spent part of my lesson this week going through exactly how I would like my Year 11s to revise. We spoke about retrieval practice, spacing the topics they are doing and ensuring thy are interleaving topics in the revision they are doing.  Hopefully now they have concrete strategies that they can use

I'm a Maths teacher, I teach numbers. Why is Literacy so important for me? Well….here's why: "Literacy is fundamental for success in school and later life. Students who cannot read, write and communicate effectively are highly unlikely to access the challenging academic curriculum in secondary school and are more likely to have poor educational outcomes across all subjects." (Link 3)  Unfortunately there are a lot of Maths teachers who believe (wrongly) that literacy is a thing that the English department do. They see it as a tick box for observations. Rather than being an essential component of students being able to learn maths.  -  So what does it look like in Maths? Answer the question: Blindle 4x + 6 Are you able to do it?  This is the challenge a lot of students face in Mathematics. Subject specific vocabulary can seem really confusing to a lot of students. Understanding what a keyword is asking of students is often the hardest part of a question and can hold st

I got the job! It's been a stressful couple of weeks for me trying to get a job. My family and I are moving across the border to Wales and obviously it is a big change for me teaching wise. Fortunately I have got a job at a great school in a role I have always wanted to be, Lead Practitioner. I know I have loads to learn about doing the job really well but am looking forward to the journey.  If you have any tips on being a great Lead Practitioner please let me know.  📚 Read:  My most recent post on how I teach equivalent fractions using Ratio tables. This is the second post in a larger series illustrating how useful Ratio tables are. Have a read here .  🔊 Listen: Dylan William on the Tips for Teachers podcast. Lots of great tips to takeaway, in particular I liked his idea about not asking questions but instead just saying statements. Have a listen here .