Explain this
Resources for teaching mathematics 14-16
How the publisher describes it:
“This resource contains 70 complete lesson plans with complementary worksheets for the students, specifically designed for GCSE level maths. This book contains 70 ready-to-use maths lessons suitable for the new GCSE Mathematics curriculum. The lesson plans contain objectives from both the D-G range and the A-C range to make them adaptable for different sets or for use in a mixed-ability context.”
Review by Peter Hall
In brief:
Each lesson has a very rich feel to it, giving lots of opportunity for class discussion.
“This is a book of gems”
This book is a collection of seventy lessons aimed at Higher Tier GCSE students (or indeed iGCSE students). Each lesson has a suggested starter, main activity, plenary and often a student worksheet – but the author stresses that these are a suggested route through the lesson and different teachers will adapt the material in different ways to best suit the needs of their learners.
The student worksheets are all available online — after a simple (and free) registration process — giving access to online copies of the worksheets as well as extra resources like files for Autograph and Cabri.
The lessons are arranged in alphabetical order — and range from ‘A tale of two numbers’ (finding factors and using ratio) to ‘Winner takes all’ (Understanding and using conditional probability).
Each lesson has a very rich feel to it, giving lots of opportunity for class discussion. The notes provide a clear sense of direction, and many many questions and prompts to ensure the lesson has many possible outcomes — all of which represent a significant learning experience for the students. The lesson about ordering fractions (something I find many learners seem to need to repeat) starts with students placing fractions like 2/3 and 1 1/4 on a number line — but then through questioning leads to ideas such as the distance between two coordinates, with the coordinates given as fractions.
This is just the right book at the right time — as we’re looking to new GCSE courses and would like more rich tasks to help our students think, and think more widely, about each topic — this is ideal. I can’t do better than the endorsement from a fellow AST on the front of the book (and on their website) — “A plethora of rich tasks: with the lessons already planned for you — from start through to homework... The title of this book understates what it provides. This is far more than a book of resources — this is a book of gems. These are lessons that will engage the students (and the teachers) in some quality mathematical thinking.” — Karen Hancock, Advanced Skills teacher, Oriel High School, Crawley
Peter Hall • AST Mathematics, Imberhorne School, East Grinstead
ISBN 978-0-8264-3603-0
2010, Continuum International Publishing Group
£29.99 paperback
