Comments on: Young, Gifted… and Stuck (Part 1) or how to support children with problems with maths, with help from Bob Marley and the Wailers and Marcia Griffiths

By: moriel gidney

moriel gidney — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:43:50 +0000

Confidence and self esteem play such a big part in it all don’t they? Is it my imagination or does the primary position of PSED (personal social and emotional development) get sidelined almost as soon as they leave reception?
I worked with a child who had ‘infant maths’ skills in Yr 6 but later everyone knew she had severe dyspraxia. Two of the basic things that made a difference to her were my writing out the sums so she was fresh to address them – after writing out columns of figures, she had had enough by then, and taping for her songs that concentrated on the end figures in tables. By the time she said ‘1×1= she had often forgotten what the first number was so we devised a system where she just held up her fingers and said the result of the table – hence for 4x she learnt a song 4,8,12,16 etc holding up her fingers so she could see where she was – it worked a treat.
I have every sympathy with maths sufferers. I have a good brain that uses figures well now but in Yr 11 was told ‘You are obstreporous and pedantic’ by the maths teacher (who taught me physics too). I got my own back though. Having been made to complete the O level physics even though I had asked for extra maths with another teacher instead, I didn’t bother with the paper but wrote on it that there was no point me doing the paper as I had scored 4% in the mock.xxx Strangely I never heard about that.
PS I had extra coaching for a term to retake my o level maths and the tutor told my mum she couldn’t work out what the problem had been – I knew – the maths teacher and I didn’t like each other!

By: Amy Eleftheriades

Amy Eleftheriades — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:40:10 +0000

Hi All,

I agree with your points on teaching maths and the concept of it being similar to teaching a new language.

I think you’re right too, Heather, that teachers of older children shouldn’t be scared to teach in ‘real-life’ circumstances. Every year I used to get my new intake of bottom set Year 5s (middle school) and we’d get right back to basics, going over the key skills through a messy mix of baking, ‘shopping’, model-making and, in some cases, rapping (not as smooth as Bob Marley’s reggae I’m afraid!)

I did, however, have to bear in mind that not all teachers teach in this way and that at some point my students would have to learn to transfer the ‘concrete’ to the ‘abstract’. Ultimately they would be able to relate the ‘real-life’ examples to the more ‘foreign’ figures on the page.

So, after a couple of terms of building confidence in key areas, I would teach the workbook activities alongside the ‘hands on’ lessons, to help the transition into the different teaching styles they’d come across!

As with all things academic, there wasn’t a hard and fast rule, but it did ofetn manage to get the disaffected a little more interested – the messier or more transport related, the better with my young men I found!!

By: Heather Bridge

Heather Bridge — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:28:03 +0000

Hello Michael
I agree with what you say about the teaching of mathematics. Mathematics is a language and like all languages, it rests on children building an understanding of mathematical concepts and of the mathematical language that goes with those concepts.

How can we help teachers be creative in their teaching so that children construct understanding of mathematical concepts and of mathematical language? Early Childhood teachers (who teach children up to the age of 8) know to use teaching approaches that give children time to explore mathematical concepts in play. These concepts are relevant to children because they are related to their own lives. For example, measuring ingredients in cooking enables children to explore weight and learn language connected to weight, building structures with blocks enables children to explore height, and breadth, and learn language connected to height and breadth and counting toy animals enables children to explore numbers and quantities and learn language related to numbers and quantities.

To avoid children being “stuck” in later school years, teachers have to be brave and teach like early childhood teachers do. They must give children plenty of time and opportunities to build a solid understanding of mathematical concepts and learn the language of mathematics so they can use it confidently.

The pressure that teachers currently face from learning standards and outcome-measured standardized attainment tests is that teaching can be narrowed and focused on the outcomes rather than on the processes that enable children to build mathematically fluency.

By: Michael Jones

Michael Jones — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:13:25 +0000

Hi Tim
I’m sorry to hear that. Many teachers used to be able to get away with just using a textbook, and blaming pupils if they didn’t understand. Did you do well at maths and physics despite the teachers? I just scraped the lowest grade possible in mayo the to enable me to go into higher education. It was a miracle! We had a cramming class a few months before the exam, led by an inspirational teacher who took us through everything step by step. He used to say,’this is really useful for life, so let’s do some very practical examples: you are buying a carpet for your granny’s lounge. The room is 25 feet by 20 feet and she has £30 to spend.’
On other occasions he would say, ‘I know this is tricky. Let’s just learn it for the exam. They are called ‘quadratic equations’. There’s no need to spend time on what they are for, but if you can do them then you will get marks.’ Every student was totally focused in these lessons, as things were making sense. We really appreciated this teacher.
As we shall see in the next post, there are many children in primary schools whose poor understanding of literacy gets missed until year 5/6 when suddenly SATs start to loom large. Suddenly they are involved in ‘cramming’activities, but this is not appropriate…
Thankfully standards of teaching have improved greatly, and early support is widely available in primary schools.

By: tim dunkerley

tim dunkerley — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:23:28 +0000

I think you must have gone to the same school as me, as I was taught maths and physics in exactly he same way.
Tim

By: Michael Jones

Michael Jones — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:14:54 +0000

Thank you Hilary. We found that the best resources were the ones we made ourselves. I used to adapt the lessons that were being offered children of the same age, by making the language simpler and making my own practical examples that I knew the children would understand.
I used to think of maths as a foreign language for the children, and drew inspiration from some really good textbooks that taught early KS3French: stories about teenagers and their families and daily lives.
As long as the children are progressing in maths, then the ‘curriculum’ you are offering them is the right one.
I hope that helps
Michael
PS I don’t think that teachers can behave towards children now in the way that we were treated… Dyscalculia does exist!!

By: Hilary gardner

Hilary gardner — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 16:14:14 +0000

Great article, really redolent of those lessons in days gone by. And maybe not so rare today. I would love to know what resources you find the most useful for maths learning in middle school, especially maths verbal problems (looking at the way the curriculum is to be shaped now, even more so). I work particularly with language impaired children so this is going to be a huge hurdle. Hilary