Frequency Tables

I’ve been avoiding putting this one up for a while, because I couldn’t think of any decent questions and this lesson is a bit all over the place. But it might be useful for someone. I swing between it not covering enough and it covering too much.

It starts with a variation theory thing on saying if a piece of data is discrete or continuous.

Then there’s some finding the mode from a frequency table example problem pairs and 4 (!!!) questions.

That’s my issue here. 4 questions isn’t enough. But I also couldn’t really think of any way to extend this and make it interesting. If you’ve got any ideas, tweet me @ticktockmaths, because really I could do with some more questions here.

Then there’s some example problem pairs on grouped frequency tables, and again, not enough and not interesting enough questions.

Then a plenary. Again, there’s not enough interesting here. Please get in contact if you can jazz this up.

Happy new year.

Rich

Finding the gradient and y-intercept from a line

Download here : https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/-12940897

Time flies. I realise that I’ve only uploaded one resource in the entire of 2023. That’s pretty bad going. I hope to be more productive in 2024.

This is a pretty simple resource about finding the gradient and y-intercept from an equation. But I wrote some nice questions.

Guess I’m just trying to get back into the swing of things.

Compound Measures : Speed

Download the PowerPoint here

That shape/space/measures bit of the menu is looking awfully bare. Not as bare as the data/probability section, but still.

Simple PowerPoint here.

Little starter

Followed by some example problem pairs and some questions
I am still loving fill in the gap resources. Interestingly, my group managed to do this without seeing the formula triagle/rearranging the formula. They just used thinking skills to work backwards.

Not sure that the reflect/expect/reflect bit of these questions works. I’ve tried to make sure they compare it to the first question each time, but I think it is better when it’s more of a ‘journey’ and you compare it to the previous question in each case.

Still A* for formatting. It looks good.

Then I’ve made a blooket for some checking, some exam questions and a plenary.

This worked well with my group but it maybe needs some mini whiteboard work.

Have a lovely weekend

Richard

Mean from a list

Download the resource here

Some data handling for once!

I have deliberately just stuck to mean here. I like to focus on it, rather than doing mean, median and mode all in one lesson.

I quite like these questions. Just because there’s loads to talk about when going through them. Things like

  • On g to h : I added one to each value. What happened to the mean?
  • b and c. I’ve increased one value by 1 and decreased another by 1. What happens to the mean?
  • e) I’ve multiplied all values by 10. What has happened to the mean?

Lots of things to generalise and investigate. I’ve even chucked in a bit of algebra.

I’ve extended things by including some ‘missing number’ questions. Only 6.

Then there’s a learning check.

That’s it.

And that’s a resource every single week of this half term. The menu is looking a lot more full these days. Roll on 2023.

Function Notation (substitution with numbers and algebra)

Download the resource here.

A very simple resource, this. But there’s not much function notation stuff out there.

I find pupils’ responses to function notation interesting. Stuff they can do like 2x+3 = 5x – 6 becomes suddenly impossible when presented in the form f(x) = 2x + 3 , g(x) = 5x – 6, find f(x) = g(x). I’m not sure why.

Anyone found anything awesome on function notation?

ChristMATHS 2022

Download it here.

My annual Christmas maths quiz is here. I’ve made it early this year to give people plenty of time to find it. (Looking back, I’ve made some sort of this quiz for 6 years now!) This isn’t just a quiz, it’s a quiz with lots of links to maths.

I know some people like to teach up until the last second, but I’ve always liked to finish the term off on a nice little maths quiz. I think it’s OK for us sometimes to let our hair down a little. I say this. I’m bald.

The rounds this year include some repeats from last year. Like the Shakin’ Stevens video round.

I think it’s nice to kick off with a song. And I’m sorry but I find this video hilarious. It’s utterly cursed. I’m usually cackling all the way through.

Round two this year is inspired by Linkee. I love a quiz. I love Linkee.

The questions were really hard to write!

Round three is a cipher type thing.

Let them use a calculator. Go on. Be nice. It’s Christmas.

Round four is the Chris Moyles Quiz night round. These are always a good laugh.

Round five is sudoko. I found this worked well last year. So I kept it. Also I couldn’t think of a round to replace it.

That’s Christmaths!

Other thoughts

  • Just two more weeks to go of term. Then I’d have uploaded a resource every week of term one. That’s pretty good going if you ask me.
  • If you’ve used any of my resources this term and liked them, and have some spare cash about, please do me a favour. Please consider a gift to KidsOut. Their online shop is filled with gifts that you can purchase to send to children in refuges. Read all about them. I genuinely get a little teary each time I do. Here is a real challenge. Take a second to read their website and stay dry eyed.
  • I hope you are having a wonderful Christmastime. Teaching is stressful and difficult and I hope you get the rest and relaxation you deserve.

Words and numbers

Download the resource here

I think this resource is quite good.

One thing I’ve noticed with pupils, is that literacy gets in the way of the mathematics more often then you would realise. There’s literacy issues with things like ‘range’ etc having very strict mathematical definitions, but we also use loads of different words for the same things.

Let’s take multiplication for instance. If we wanted to talk about 4 multiplied by 3, we might say : 4 times 3, 4 lots of 3, 4 groups of 3, four threes, etc. There’s loads and I think it can be quite a lot for a pupil to get their head around.

So I created 6 little starters that all use the same numbers but switch out the wording.

I think using them has been really helpful. There’s a few ambiguous ones in there, too. I love ambiguous cases, they provide great discussions.

Download these and have a look. I think they’re one of my best ideas.

Solving by factorising

Download the lesson here

This is a follow up to my factorising quadratics lesson. I taught this two weeks ago, but I was cleaning up the slides to be put online. I really think the exercise that goes along with it is nicely thinky. Some variation and slow build up of activity.

3 leads on to these problem solve-y questions
Not a huge lot here, but I thought this lesson and my other quadratics lesson here sequenced well.

Other thoughts

  • I’ve been doing barvember. The pupils in my year 7 class have kinda hated it, which proves just how valuable and needed it was. These questions are so high quality, and it’s lovely to show how you can do some of these problems just with bars and basic four operations knowledge. I laminated some responses from the pupils, and they loved seeing their work up on the board. Great stuff.
  • This blog is going to break it’s usual format for the next few weeks. Next week I’ve got some starters for you, the week after … ChristMaths is going to be published early.
  • As always, thoughts and insights to @ticktockmaths on Twitter.

Substitution with positive integers

Download the resource here

Sometimes a resource benefits from you deleting stuff, not adding stuff.

I’ve got a much better understanding of what I want these resources to be, and how they’re helpful these days.

Case in point. This used to be a massive PowerPoint stuff with activities, just for the sake of doing activities. But there’s way better stuff on resourceaholic.com if you want nice worksheets.

I’ve cut right down on that. Now I know what I want. An example problem pair, some good questions and a base to build from. Other people have made interesting and fun substitutions tasks. I don’t need to put bad approximations of them in my slides. These are the bones of a lesson.

One thing I DO need is lots of feedback opportunities. Thus I’ve added in loads of mini whiteboard work.

These don’t move as quick as the gif 🙂 Clicking controls the speed.

And some questions whose progression makes sense

And that’s pretty much it. There’s some exam questions and a plenary, but I genuinely think that by deleting loads of stuff I’ve got much closer to the actual inquisition of the skill.

Sometimes, less is more.

Factorising Quadratics

Download the lesson here

No solving here. Just concentrating on the core skill of factorising. I started with an example and then this

Giving them one bracket so we build up the skill. But wait.

*MISCONCEPTION TIME*

It doesn’t matter which way around the brackets go but on this exercise it kinda makes it look like it does

*MISCONCEPTION TIME*

Did this this cause an issue with my students? No. Because I pointed out this to them. Sometimes sharing your thought processes when planning is a really useful thing.

Then there’s a regular exercise, and then this

Yes. I’ve had someone make emojis of my own face to use in my lesson resources. This might be one of the most egotistical things any maths teacher has done. Which leads into…
I’d rather do this as an extension rather than solving as I believe solving is this whole other thing. I’m going to do a PowerPoint wholly devoted to solving quadratics. I really do believe the skills are better split up this way.

Other thoughts

  • This only deals with quadratics where a=1. I’ve done a whole over PowerPoint on a>1 here.
  • Thinking about factorising quadratics in depth, you could easily do 2 lessons on factorising, 1/2 on non-monic quadratics and 1/2 on solving after you’ve factorised. And that’s without even talking much about graphs. My current year 11 scheme of work has ‘solving by factorising’ in one lesson. There is too much content in GCSE/IGCSE.