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‘Ready
to go’ interactive mathematics lesson
starter material |
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School:
Gosford Hill School, Kidlington |
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Fellow: Alan Slater |
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Email: alaneslater@hotmail.com |
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Objective |
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To provide an update on the ‘Ready
to Go’ project kindly supported by The
Gatsby Charitable Foundation. I will cover
what the project is about, and what has happened. |
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What is it about? |
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The start of any lesson is absolutely crucial
to its success. Get it right and the whole
class can be lifted to the higher bounds of
expectations and experience. Get it wrong
and the lesson is unsatisfactory for everyone
involved. |
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The basic idea of the ‘Ready to Go’
project is to design, develop, demonstrate,
deliver and distribute a set of materials
that can be used as starters in key stage
3 maths lessons. At alls stages we see the
project as a pilot exercise. |
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The ‘Ready to Go’ resource can
be used on electronic white boards, desk top
and laptop computers and in paper format.
For the future we see it being used effectively
and efficiently on PDAs and pocket computers.
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The project is principally school based
(Gosford Hill) but with a good use of networks,
connections and contacts beyond the school. |
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What has happened? |
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A core set of students were actively involved
at each stage of the project. A lot of other
students, over 600 in practice, were involved
in assessing and commenting on the various
examples we designed. |
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Over 200 lesson starts with 60 different
teachers were observed during the period September
2005 to June 2006. This was to enable a picture
to be developed on how lessons were starting-
or not- in differing classes. |
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Area |
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Since this was the first attempt at this
type of project we decided to concentrate
on key stage 3 maths. Within that area however
there are over 100 subthemes. So to make the
project manageable within the resources made
available by Gatsby we decided to work on
twenty topics in four areas of maths: number,
shape and space, algebra, and handling data.
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Spreadsheet software was used as the template.
We built up twenty starters taking design
and maths cues from work in ICT, material
available on the internet, on CDs and in books.
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How the starters are being used |
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The primary issue underlying the ‘Ready
to Go’ starters is that getting off
to a good start means everything in the lesson.
A good start will engage and challenge all
pupils. It will enable them to establish the
level they are working at and allow them to
identify what it could take to get to the
next level. The pupils are actively involved
in doing something. Soon, very soon, the students
can see what questions they got right and
what ones they need to work on. |
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‘Ready to Go’ starters can be
used as whole class starters where the teacher
clicks on the starter and displays this on
a interactive white board. Alternatively using
laptops or desktops the students can log onto
the school’s intranet and pick up and
get on with the starter for the day. Using
laptops or desktops the students can save
their work. |
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Teachers can indicate the answers and then
open up to whole class discussions on say
commonly found errors, or more individual
issues. |
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Then the class can get on with the rest
of the lesson- which may or may not relate
to the starter. |
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The ‘Ready to Go’ materials
can also be used in plenaries, as breakout
sessions with whole classes or parts of classes,
and in revision exercises. |
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Opportunities are built in for flexibility
in use by the teacher, for consolidation,
value added and revision. In using ‘Ready
to Go’ starters teacher and pupil expectations
are that they will work to the hardest or
highest level they can reach. The content
seems to be appropriate to allow differentiation,
enable students to stretch, be challenged
and experience success. |
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Learning styles are accommodated as is the
freedom from the teacher’s perspective
to allow students to work individually, in
pairs, in small groups or as a whole class.
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Pedagogically the starters are positively
contributing to the enthusiasm of teachers
using technology even if it is just 10 minutes
in a lesson in a day. Students expect technology
to be used if it is in the classroom. |
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‘Ready to Go’ starters can be
used to successfully take into account individual
students current knowledge, practice and progression.
They also allow for higher order thinking
skills and self esteem to be developed. Opportunities
for students to use language and explanations
on how they did what they did is sometimes
new and useful to all involved. |
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I also observed the starters being used
with supply teachers, trainee teachers, newly
qualified teachers and teaching assistants.
On each occasion where we had pre-lesson time
to try the starters out success was achieved,
spirits lifted, behavioural problems diluted,
and quality teaching continued. |
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Possible next steps: develop more KS3, do
similar for KS4, think about KS2 and A level.
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Teachers, teaching
assistants and students comments on
‘Ready to Go’ KS3 Starters |
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visually appealing |
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differentiation |
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variety |
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independence |
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pupil power |
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personalized learning |
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enrichment |
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engagement |
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challenges |
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interactivity |
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consolidation |
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supports self esteem |
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knowledge finder |
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ability check-up |
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linking topics |
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raising class confidence and interest |
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quickly identifying value added |
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enriching teacher enterprise |
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design and deliver set of interactive
ready to go starters for ks2,4,5? |
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can I have it on pocket computers
please |
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can I do it on a wiki for my class? |
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clear and well organized |
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covering levels Foundation to Higher
as well as in KS3 |
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attractive format |
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important facts raised |
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opportunities for differentiation |
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prospects for independent learning |
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opens topics for discussion |
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offers practice sessions |
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useful information for tips and tricks |
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feel happier starting lesson with
pace and personalisation |
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I can get on with something useful |
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ability to consolidate and extend |
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as signposts for links to other curricular
topics |
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I’m using resources for ‘break
out’ sessions plenaries revision
quick tests |
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