Maths- Dinah Harvey

Dinah came in and modelled how to use equipment with some of my higher students as I find this is an area I struggle with. She first gave them a little assessment, asking them to draw 0-3 on a number line, and then put as many different fractions as they could on the number line. This simple question gave her and myself a huge idea of the student's knowledge of fractions. It's amazing how one good question can give you so much insight into what the students know. Then she modelled how to increase their understanding by using fraction tiles and used this to model how to do mixed fractions, improper fractions, equivalent fractions etc. The students were engaged and learnt a lot in the short amount of time. By giving each student a different size fraction, they were all occupied, all learning, and all seeing how it works with the different fractions. 

At the end of the session she got them to do the the same activity again and of course they all had a much greater understanding of fractions. 

She also modelled how to use paper to model fractions to the lower group- cutting them up and getting students to show her how they had come to their answer.

I also got a bonus session so she modelled how to use large dotty arrays to introduce multiplication to my stage 7s. They worked with a partner to break the arrays up to solve multiplication problems such as 16x23. Then she got them to visualise the equipment on a piece of paper and eventually worked the paper down to a small size. This is a perfect way of leading on to algorithms. 

The main things I got out of the session were:

• One good question is enough to gain insight into what the kids know and don't know
• Even paper is equipment- and it makes the children show how they came to a certain answer
• Giving students scrap paper encourages them to take risks. She recommended giving them scrap paper and vivids as this commits then to what they have written and it's easier for the teacher to see- as opposed to a whiteboard and pen where they will be likely to rub it out. 
• Give the higher students equipment to help them understand the concept, then take it away and give them paper, gradually making the paper smaller so eventually they do not need to visualise it as much.