This morning began with a continuation of the classroom management discussion from yesterday.
- Benchmarking: draw a line in pupils books to help them see how much work they've done in 5 minutes - possible photocopy and send home?
- Quiet Word: avoids giving pupils the attention they may be craving with their behaviour
- Orders not Requests: removing the "can do" option makes it non-negotiable; adding "thank you" at the end compels them to follow instructions
Seating Plans
- seating plans for instruction, then can work with whoever they want providing they remain on task; bring back to seating plan if not
- study buddies: get students to decide who they work well with
- seat pupils with a friend but not in friendship groups
How Important is Proof?
Proof was the main part of our discussion today. Initially we all had varying definition of proof, so described it as:
Proof: a valid argument that logically builds on knowledge that the students already have to get to the next step.We then looked at a progression of problems given in a lesson aimed at motivating proof..
Motivation
The above is an example of motivation for the study of proof, in the same way that the algebraic magic triangle is motivation for the study of algebra.
Individual task motivation could also be achieved by having codes, padlocks and prizes.
The full article written by Andreas Stylianides can be found here.
Polynomial Division
On a total sidenote to the whole session, I learnt synthetic division today (RH working):
As it's very removed from what you're actually doing with polynomial division, I'd be reluctant to teach it this way, but use it myself to check pupils' answers quickly and/or teach to Year 13s if I feel they have a full understanding of the concept and therefore would just be giving them an alternative method.
