With our year 9 and 10 this year we are following the Edexcel 2 and 3 year schemes work (it seemed as good a place as any and I know the work that has gone into checking/double checking & triple checking it by the maths team – the format is also something we are used to working with so made sense). We haven’t yet made a decision which exam board and won’t for some time, so I’m going to be dipping into the SAMs (Sample Assessment Materials) from all the boards as the worksheets progress over time for ideas.
I’ve set myself up a little spreadsheet ready to start including the topics from each unit and I’m aiming to make sure that we revisit them AT LEAST every couple of weeks (if not more often!) – I do after all have 30 questions (at least) a week to make sure that they get that regular “deliberate practice” needed. The time is right to start this as we are well into unit 1 of the scheme of work and so over the next few weeks we’ll keep these topics but they will get slightly more complex in some cases and then as the students show that they have retained the earlier skills instead of keep getting them to do say, product of prime factors (occasionally I’ll pop one in as a skills check) I’ll include questions with a twist whilst also then including topics from unit 2 as we move onto that – these will obviously be easier to start with, getting progressively tougher – so there should always be something the students can access.
The same with unit 3, unit 4 etc …. ad infinitum (well at least until the end of the SOW). I have also put them in the “extras” tab at JustMaths online along with solutions.
I am aware that some topics won’t be suited to short snappy questions but that isn’t what bread and butter is about – this is about ensuring that we don’t have to keep wasting valuable teaching time later on going over previous skills that we know we have taught (and taught well in most cases!) …. As the old phrase goes “use it or lose it!” and we need to think about the good old Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. I am also aware that some of these questions are easy but for that core body of students, you will know how often they stumble when asked something you taught them last week and the complexity will ramp up over time I can assure you, especially as we’ve yet to do surds that will make an appearance! (I love teaching surds!).
The fourth sheet of the week will be something different based around problems I find on nrich, Don Steward’s Median or anything by Tony Gardiner (I’m a big fan!)
Week 1.
