Category: collaboration

Things I Learned about Marking, Students Collaborating, Diagnostic Questions, and Students’ Reasoning (Notes from the Maths TeachMeet in Kuala Lumpur)

The maths TeachMeet in I attended today at Alice Smith School in Kuala Lumpur was inspiring. I attended sessions about marking (by Denise Benson from Beacon House School), a collaborative KS3 scheme of work (Phil Welch from Alice Smith School), things learned from Craig Barton (John Cartwright from Garden International School), and ways to deepen students’ reasoning  talk (Simone Dixon from Tanglin Trust School).

I also led a workshop about career progression for teachers (materials here). One of the tips I give is about reflective journaling. I recommend starting a blog, for instance. Someone asked me about my own blog and I realise I should probably practice what I preach and write some posts. A good first goal would be once a month since I’m currently writing a lot less than that.

Smart Marking (by Denise Benson from Beacon House School)

My main takeaways were twofold, one of which is not even about marking. First, exit tickets are the way Denise marks because it provides her with feedback for the planning and teaching of the next lesson and because it’s immediately useful to the student as well to see if they understood the lesson. I was struck that it would make them easier to have a little pre-printed form that they use and then the next lesson they could stick it in their book (if I deem that it would be useful for them to keep them). The scribbles below are a mock-up from my notes; hope you can read them!

Secondly, teachers complain about marking because they don’t have time. But actually teachers give up lots of time for lots of things, for example, reading teaching blogs, writing worksheets, or going to a TeachMeet on a Saturday. The problem with marking is that it’s not always a good use of time. Denise was saying that we should find a way to make it quicker and worth the time it takes.

She left us with a brilliant question.

A collaborative KS3 scheme of work (Phil Welch from Alice Smith School)

We had some good background discussion first about what KS3 looks like in each of our schools (using a Padlet). But I shall skip forward to the thing that struck me: Phil has capitalised on a timetabling quirk in that the whole of year 7 has maths at the same time. Thus they can have one week a term in which the students do a collaborative project in mixed groups. Also, the school has pairs of big classrooms with sliding doors between so they can squish a whole year group in for introduction or closing sessions. They also have a lot of breakout/corridor space for groups to work on projects. Really, this is such a great idea that works thanks in part to the brilliant facilities they have at Alice Smith School. Collaborative projects would still work in my school but would be a bit messier.

Highlights of the things learned from Craig Barton (John Cartwright from Garden International School) Continue reading “Things I Learned about Marking, Students Collaborating, Diagnostic Questions, and Students’ Reasoning (Notes from the Maths TeachMeet in Kuala Lumpur)”

Test Champions

This idea was recently shared with me by Pietro Tozzi. He is a maths teacher at Gumley House Convent School in London but also works for Pearson (the Edexcel exam board) two days a week. We brought him out to our school in Singapore to do some training for the team about the new A-level in maths. (By the way, if you are looking for an A-level or (I)GCSE trainer, I would highly recommend him.)

During our time together, he shared this idea for returning a test. As it turns out I had a KS3 test to return and tried it out. As I marked I kept track of the best answers for each question. When I compiled this table, I made sure that every student was listed and students with lower scores were listed more frequently, if possible.

The class score represents the fact that among all the students, they have expertise to get full marks; someone scored perfectly on every question.

After passing back the tests, I asked students to get up and meet others who could help them correct their errors. They spent about half an hour up and about, talking over their questions, and making notations (using a coloured pen) on their tests. While they were doing this, I was able to work around the room and talk to those who had difficulties that their peers couldn’t solve.

They enjoyed this way of reviewing and correcting their tests. Having them out of their seats was good for their concentration (for the most part!) and also allowed me to be less conspicuous in my help of a few key students.

I completed this lesson with a fill-in sheet for students to list strengths and targets based on the test. We spent the following lesson with students doing individual work on their targets before we moved on to our next topics of study.