TOP TIPS FROM 3 HIGH-SCHOOL MATHS TEACHERS

From our Kāhui Ako Maths Network Workstream

Based on questions asked from Primary & Intermediate teachers

Thursday 5th September 2024. PNINS

Trevor Saunders*. PNGHS. t.saunders@pnghs.school.nz Nikki Woison. PNBHS. woisinn@pnbhs.school.nz

Sara-Lee Armstrong Awatapu College.  armstrongs@awatapu.school.nz

Before the session, teachers were invited to add questions to a list.  All 12 questions, and detailed answers are available further down this post. If it is TL;DR, here is a summary!

Maths is learning a language.  It’s a code, like emojis.

Biggest deficits at high school: Attitude to maths. Having Resilience.  Being curious.  Maths mileage. Being organised for learning! Knowledge: add/sub mult/div. PV, Decimal PV. Fractions and decimals.

When setting Home-Learning - Don’t give your learners questions parents can ‘help’ with and confuse them. Give them real world activities like baking.   

Estimation. Practise this lots! Number bonds, tidy numbers, powers of 10 etc.

Always model to the group/class how to estimate, by doing ‘think alouds’. The skill is understanding what the question is asking us. 

Let your kids know this:  Something special about high school is that every one of your teachers is passionate about their subject.

And the number 1 tip…  Don’t rush ahead in the curriculum for an advanced kid in maths.  Broaden their knowledge.

* Trevor and the team at PNGHS are more than happy to have teachers visit their school, or for Trevor to visit other schools to support their Maths Teaching and Learning. Just flick him an email!

Maths Questions from Primary/Intermediate teachers, answered by High School Teachers
What areas of maths do you see Year 9 students struggling with the most?	Engagement: sustained effort, resilience, being curious, persistent Maths milage: not enough time spent learning Maths Connecting Maths ideas/concepts: how to combine BF and PV. Algebra as a way to explain patterns Knowledge: add/sub mult/div BF. PV, Decimal PV. Frac/decimal frac They all WANT to do well in Maths, just don’t know how
What advice can we give to Year 8 students and their parents to help with the transition to high school maths	That Maths is important, it is a core subject (3 or 4 hr/week), not optional. Prepare to do homework on a regular basis. Understand your own capabilities in Maths early and be prepared to talk to your Maths teacher about this early in the year, rather than waiting for the teacher to get up to speed with each student. Extra help OR extension options early in the piece contribute to better engagement. PARENTS → Contact the Maths teacher early and let us know any issues. This is not a bother for us, rather a valuable source of information that is helpful and makes for better outcomes for all concerned.
What would you recommend Year 8 students and their parents do at home to help improve their maths	Engage in Maths with them, discuss how you use Maths everyday at work, at home, shopping, planning trips, paying bills, working out budgets. Mortgage repayments, cooking. Take an interest in homework tasks and help as appropriate. Encourage the student to ask questions, contribute to discussions in class, etc. Ask to see classwork books and notes, offer advice on good habits etc. “Be present” in their Maths learning at home.
How do you assess learners in mathematics when they transition into your school.	We get information (limited) from contributing schools plus we do an entrance test. Each school can talk directly to what they do. PNGHS do not stream anymore so entrance test is used as an initial benchmark. PNGHS “Essential Skills” tasks and early engagement with homework tasks are valuable contributors to how we can ‘assess’ where our students are at.
What Nationally Normed assessment do you use?	PNGHS use a mix of traditional (pen and paper) end-of-topic assessments and e-AsTTle-like tasks. We grade consistently to established curriculum levels. PNGHS use E-AsTTLe for topic-based tests plus end of year exam. PNBHS…. Awatapu…..
How do you differentiate for Maths at Intermediate and Secondary School?	PNBHS has a form of streaming with support classes at Y9 and 10 PNGHS has Maths Extra (support) classes and Maths Challenge (extension) groups. Some mixed ability grouping, some choice as to which tasks to engage with (challenge). Awatapu has a learning support programme
What main areas of need do learners have when transitioning into Secondary School.	Organisation for learning. Students do not have a homeroom desk, they get allocated a locker or take the books they need. Having the right gear for the right class is a major issue for some students. Allowing time for the activities in their life, committing all their time to 1 activity. Personal responsibility for finishing homework, for checking Google Classroom etc.
How do you cater for neurodiverse students?	Do you mean Neuro diverse??.  PNGHS We have a department in the school that works with students and develops learning plans for them. Sometimes it is modified resources, sometimes learning spaces, learning coach, special assessment conditions etc
How do you cater for students with dyslexia who struggle to read but can do maths?	We have some reader/writers/learning coaches available. A referral is sent to our support team and a plan is developed, SAC’s are utilised. Students often work in pairs/small groups so this can reduce the reading/writing load for some students.
Do you use contexts that are relevant to the students?	Where possible, this goes back to a relevance of Maths, how is it viewed by students and their families? CAA is very heavily context driven, is that context relevant to students, for some it will be, for some it won’t. If you don’t see a value in something then you don’t see where it would fit.
How do you connect to their current knowledge and vocabulary?	By recapping previous learning/concepts. Reconnecting with Maths ideas. By connecting their current Maths vocab to a more specialised vocab as they start to deal with more subtle maths concepts.
OTHER What to do with G&T students or possible G&T students?	Do not give them Year 9/10/11 workbooks. Extension material that is self-propelling and extends ‘horizontally’ rather than vertically . . . https://shop.amt.edu.au/products/student-notes-dirichlet This is part of a course or program where students submit completed work to the teacher to be marked from time-to-time. Some research and investigation by the student is needed to complete the learning and the problem sets. Not all students like worksheets and constant ‘worksheet’-based work creates a negative impression about how one learns Mathematics.