Curriculum Progression

There are more and more conversations around the curriculum happening now but are we talking about the right things?

I would argue not completely, let me explain:

Vertical Progression of a topic

Quite often we talk about how we can progress a topic vertically e.g. how percentages develops from finding a percentage, to increasing and decreasing, compound growth and decay, reverse percentages etc. This is often taught and learnt over a number of years and we look at where that fits in our Year 7 SOW and where it leads in Year 8,9,10 and so on. I love this from @SarahFarrellKS2 about how she progresses times tables in her Primary school over a number of years. https://mrsfclassroom.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/times-tables-understanding-and-applying-them/

Horizontal Progression of a topic

We discuss horizontal progression less than vertically e.g. how percentages links across the curriculum. If we continue with the example of percentages, I am sure lots of maths teachers make the link with fractions, decimals and ratios but do we go any further than that? What about linking percentages to areas of shapes? How does it link to linear graphs, how can we show an increase or decrease of percentages graphically? Can we use models/methods to support these links? There are some fantastic resources produced for bar models and ratio tables and how they can be used across the curriculum from @amiecoley (https://alcmaths.wordpress.com/2022/05/02/ratio-tables/) on ratio tables and @bengordon (https://t.co/QDNLri3GK3) on bar models.

Progressing Literacy

I think there are very few conversations about progressing literacy outside of the English department. But it plays a big role in being able to do the Maths if students understand the keywords being used. My schools English department talks about focussing on single sentences in Year 7, multiple sentences in Year 8, Paragraphs in Year 9 and finally essays in Year 10 and 11. Should Maths have a similar progression of how words are used? What key words do we want students to know? Do we just look for definitions in Year 7? By year 11 are students able to write sentences or verbally use the keywords within their work?

Progressing a model/method

Finally I don't think there are many, if any, discussions about progressing a model/method that we use. Do we consider why we use a certain method and how that will help students in Year 11 and beyond? Why solve equations using the balance method instead of function machines, how does that benefit us in the long run? How do we introduce a model/method? Are making links to models/methods used in Primary schools?

Curriculum progression is more than just a linear conversation about a topic, it is multi-faceted and our conversations about improving the curriculum need to reflect that.

Literacy in Maths

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 s...

Equivalent Fractions with Ratio Tables

The following is a slide taken from NCETM Checkpoints. I was happy with the fraction pair on the right but the left stumped me! Then I had that 'aha' moment! What I used to do I never used to teach equivalent fractions like the one on the left to my classes. I would just use arrows to multiply both numerator and denominator to find an equivalent fraction, very similar to the fractions on the right. The issue with this though is, like me, students don't necessarily see all of the multiplicative relationships between the fractions as well as within the fraction. They are missing that key knowledge to support them answering the first pair of fractions. What I do now Ratio tables allow students to see those multiplicative links. By doing this it makes questions like the checkpoints task much easier for students to do. Disclaimer: this isn't the only way I teach equivalent fractions. I also show students how prime factors can also help us. There will be a future...

Percentages with Ratio Tables

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.

Cameron Setter

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