#10minwin : I Wish I Had (IWIH) / I Wish I Knew (IWIK)

At the end of a recent test, students were asked to write a sentence on a post-it that started:

• IWIH (I Wish I Had)
• IWIK (I Wish I Knew)

(they stuck it on the board underneath the heading they'd chosen)

These were then collated and formed the start of our test feedback lesson:

We started off with students volunteering to offer advice to any of their peers for the IWIK / IWIH statements that were projected on the board. 

Students enjoyed and were engaged in the tailored feedback as it was their concerns and thoughts that were immediately addressed. And it took just a few minutes to plan but was maximum impact!

Breaking down the new GCSE - Group Work

Following a recent test, my Year 10 class were baffled by the following problem, despite their confidence in the key skills behind it:

So we broke down the problem into individual cards.

Within each group, there were 4 roles (inspired by a recent CPD session):

• Reader: only person whose voice can be heard
• Judge: writes the letter on a post it and puts on scale
• Justifier: writes reason on a post it for the judges position (no discussing!)
• Methoder: writes maths method (e.g. standard form) on post it

The reader reads out each of the individual cards, while the judge decides how difficult the question is. During the activity it looked something like this:

So within the group they were able to see that none of the skills in the question were "too" tough for them (though they hadn't been told that it linked to the test question until they figured that out!)

Their feedback on the task:

• felt more focused to  concentrate on listening to the reader really carefully
• sometimes the justifier wanted to disagree with the judge!
• reader had to make sure they were really clear as they weren't allowed to show the card to anyone else

After this, they were re-presented with the original question, and using the cue cards, they were then allowed to talk to each other to arrange the steps into an order in which they could have solved this 6 mark question.

#10minwin - 6 Questions

A quick plenary with 6 styles of question:

• convince me
• fact or formula
• definition
• anagram
• question (procedural)
• real-life (problem solving)

1st page (above) is hyperlinked so students can select which type of question they'd like to do (or all of them!)

Link to some topic examples can be found here.

Example of 6 questions template being used as a plenary for bearings.

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Circle Theorems Pile-Up

In trying to assess as many circle theorems at once, and inspired by the Trigonometry Pile-Up, I attempted to create a double-sided scaffolding worksheet for this.

Worksheet below!

Front Side: unscaffolded worksheet for students to attempt to find the labelled angles.

Reverse Side: hints given to guide pupils in finding the labelled angles.

Bearings on Holiday

In an attempt to get some cross-curricular activities in this year, I was greatly helped by members of our school's language department to get some key phrases, so that we could complete our bearings posters in some European languages!

Here's the overview of the students' brief, which I cut down into individual tasks with time limits, so that the poster was fully planned before they were "let loose" on the coloured card and pens!

And the phrases that were kindly provided...

After many questions and a lot of questions in the classroom, here are the finished products!

#10minwin - To-Do List Categories

Following our first NQT conference, we had a session on time-management, which I am frankly terrible at. I get carried away with making resources sometimes at the detriment of more important tasks! We were advised not only to set time limits for certain tasks, but to rank priority into 4 main groups (seen below).

Outcome - I am now much more productive!

Double-Sided Worksheets

Created an additional double-sided worksheet today for circle theorem and general angle revision - went down a treat!

Answers above, with double-sided worksheet (differentiated with hints on the back) found here.

#10minwin - Burger Questions

I have a number of students for whom the final answer is the only thing of importance. Whilst there is no arguing with the fact that accuracy of the final result is key, I wanted to emphasise the justification and explanation of methods.

After reading a post on sandwich questions and with a penchant for burgers, have started to create worksheets in this format.

Result: with the answer already given, students have no option but to show how to get from question to answer. It also had the added bonus of highlighting misconceptions, as if the correct answer wasn't reached, then the method couldn't be correct. Plus, minimal marking required!

#10minwin - Double-Sided Scaffolding

An idea which only popped into my brain whilst running through ideas with a music teacher... double-sided worksheets. Both sides have the same material covered, but one side has significantly more scaffolding.

This enables all pupils to be given the same sheet so no-one feels singled out, but pupils have a little more assistance if needed.

An example for an investigation of area and perimeter is below:

Non-scaffolded version - worksheets are given out this way up

Scaffolding for each section of the worksheet, specifically some examples to help pupils get started.

#10minwin - Planning to Teach Framework

Example of the Planning to Teach Framework for
the C2 chapter on Exponentials and Logarithms

During my PGCE we worked from and edited a Planning to Teach Framework, suitable for any topic.

Continuing to use this as a starting point during my NQT, I find myself adding to the misconceptions and anticipated after every lesson and test, thinking about ways to change the way I teach the topic the following year.

To save every beginning teacher from having to go through this process, I'm uploading the ones I have been working on so far in the hope that others can use them and add to them!

Planning to Teach Frameworks can be found here.

#10minwin - Questions and Prompts - Thank You Anne Watson!

Away from the hustle, bustle, report and marking of the term, I find myself with some time to really think about how I am going to present the upcoming material to each year group.

Dusting off "Questions and Prompts" by Anne Watson and John Mason, under whom I was fortunate enough to train, I remembered all the wonderful ways to phrase questions that we'd looked at on my PGCE. Now to make sure they became a part of every lesson...

So as an additional to the PTTF (Planning to Teach Framework) I have created a Planning to Question Framework (PTQF) based on the ideas in this book. Following their categorisation, the framework is split into 8 sections:

• definitions
• examples and counter-examples
• facts, theorems and properties
• techniques
• conjectures and problems
• explanations, justifications, reasoning, proofs
• representation and notation
• links, relationships and connections

 On the right are a few ideas for probability, coming soon to a Year 7 class...

The original file can be downloaded and adapted from here.

Work in progress examples can be found in the PTQF folder here.

Conveyor Belt Marking from @TeacherToolkit

#10minwin - PRET or LRMSS Homeworks

PRET homeworks enable students to Practise, Recall, Extend and Think on a given topic.

The skills section gives learners quick practise on the technique to ensure they are comfortable with it and this has the advantage of being easy to self-assess the following lesson.

Following a homework, the stretch question is done in class, with those that have been able to complete it giving input of their ideas and strategies for solving. I particularly liked Q2 here on linear equations!

Maths teachers everywhere seem to be jumping on this - with Jo @mathsjem compiling them all into this handy website!

#10minwin - Google Form Homework

The motivation of Lower 6th classes across the school is sometimes called into question by the number of students whose homework is not in on time, so I have begun to use online homeworks, giving me instant access to knowing who has completed the homework prior to going into the lesson.

Although it took a little bit of time to set up the questions and work the conditional formatting of the spreadsheet, I can now use this as a template for all online quizzes.

The actual homework can be found here: http://bit.ly/L6-C2-3

This also gave me the advantage of reinforcing the belief that teachers monitor pupil participation out of lessons and I was able to send brief emails to students the night before homework was due to ensure it was completed (see the difference between completion of the Class 2 students vs Class 1 due to this reminder!)

Class Dojo

Over the past 4 months I have been trialing Class Dojo with my tutor group with the aim of raising aspirations for positive behaviour within the form.

Students can earn points for meeting the expectations I have of them, e.g. smartly dressed, being silent during the register, helping others, having their planner signed by parents as well as additional points for going above and beyond, e.g. house spirit for participating in a house competition or assembly, good news either from home or from other teachers.

I am thrilled with the effect that it is having on the tutor group and that the simplicity of the competitive nature as I see pupils asking the top scorers how they are achieving so many points is fantastic!


Class Dojo is also being trialled by other members of staff in my school, and we compiled this list of strategies that we have found to be effective.



Strategies that have Worked Well

• extra point for everyone if they all remember books
• 10 points = a merit
• give prefects app access in tutor time (can limit what they can do)
• show whole class pie chart for a lesson to show positives and negatives
• class total found through reports => whole class
• refresh every half term to avoid a large gap appearing