WA: Out of Field Support Days for Junior Maths Teachers
Designed for teachers working outside their area:
This course develops conceptual understanding of the trickiest areas of junior maths, as well as addressing common problem-areas identified by Heads of Department across Australia
Teaching maths to junior high school students is tricky at the best of times, let alone when you have limited experience or training in that area. Feeling frustrated or overwhelmed is very common. This course has been designed in consultation with Heads-of-Department across Australia to support you.
This course will help you to:
- develop confidence in your understanding and teaching of the connections between: integers, fraction operations, exponents, algebra, multiplicative and proportional reasoning, probability and relative frequency, area/volume formulas, Pythagoras and deductive geometry
- know what to look for in student answers, including common misconceptions, and how to help
- differentiate for students without driving yourself crazy and re-engage those who hate maths
- unpack assessment requirements (including both test design and the proficiency strands)
Come along to either day, or both days, depending on your needs.
Day 1
Year 7 Content Focus
Registration – 7:45-8:00
Session 1 – 8:00-10:00
Key Number Concepts and Communicating Mathematical Thinking
- Setting out working and steps for building clear communication
- Integers, including addition and subtraction
(Essential for Day 2) - Rounding and estimating (including with fractions and decimals)
- Converting between fractions, decimals and percent
- Converting between units of measure
- Introducing variables and substitution for algebra using post-it-notes (Essential for Day 2)
Session 2 – 10:30-12:30
Building Confidence with Multiplication, Algebra and Geometry
- Mastering multiplication and division facts (including practice tasks and games)
- *Associative, commutative and distributive laws
- Reviewing order of operations
- Solving simple linear equations and plotting graphs
- *Indices and square roots (Essential for Day 2)
- Area of parallelograms and triangles
Session 3 – 1:00-2:30
Making Sense of Fractions, Probability and Geometric Reasoning
- All four operations with fractions building from an array mode
- Probability and statistics with fractions
- Deductive geometry with parallel lines and triangles
OPTIONAL SESSION:
Session 4 – 2:50-4:00
Differentiation and Fluency, What To Do When Kids Hate Maths, Class Diagnostics
- Simple ideas for differentiation and building fluency
- What to do when students hate maths: mindset and working mathematically
- Time to go through your class diagnostics (Note: you will be sent a test to try with kids beforehand if you have time, otherwise you can examine samples from others)
Day 2
Year 8-9 Content Focus
Registration – 7:45-8:00
Session 1 – 8:00-10:00
Applying Number Models to Probability, Integers, Rates and Ratios
- Application of Fraction Operations with Arrays to two-event probability (and/or, two-way tables, complementary events) Note: builds on fraction operations with arrays from Day 1 – addition and multiplication of fractions using an array model is essential knowledge for this session
- Application of Arrays and the Cartesian plane to multiplication and division of integers Note: this session builds on the knowledge of integers and operations from Day 1
- Rates and Ratios
Session 2 – 10:30-12:30
Revisiting Algebra and Building Linear Equation Understanding
- Revising algebra when it didn’t work (like terms, substitution … )
- Distributive law, factorising and simplifying in algebra.
Note: this session builds on knowledge from Day 1 on using post-it notes for algebra as well as the same topics for number - Linear equations and the Cartesian plane
- Irrational numbers Note: this session builds on knowledge from Day 1 on indices and square roots
Session 3 – 1:00-2:30
Extending Geometry, Measurement and Trigonometry Thinking
- Area of quadrilaterals (trapeziums, kites) and circles, Volume of prisms
- Congruence of triangles and properties of quadrilaterals
- Pythagoras
- If time: trigonometry of right-angled triangles
OPTIONAL SESSION:
Session 4 – 2:50-4:00
Assessment and Future Learning
- Where concepts go in senior so you know what is most important
- Unpacking and assessing the proficiency strands
- Test design and designing good questions