Supporting your students’ start to A Level Maths
09 September 2024
Keith Proffitt, MEI Curriculum Developer
This blog is based on some online professional development I ran for OCR A Level Maths B (MEI) – H640 in June 2024. You can find the supporting material on Teach Cambridge.
Consider how you start with a new A Level maths class in such a way that it sets the ethos you want in your classroom. How do you ‘start as you mean to go on’, or perhaps better: ‘knowing where you have to get to by the end of year 13, how do you begin year 12?’
I think this is a big question. It’s not just about what topic to start with and at what level, it’s also about student motivation and mindset, about getting to know your students, and about the ethos you want to establish because it’s important to you. The first couple of weeks with a new class set the scene for what’s to come.
Let’s start with some maths
This is the transcript of a student describing a mathematical diagram for another student to draw. Why don’t you try drawing the diagram?
Erm…ok… so what I see is first a set of axes…umm…like Cartesian nice and normal…erm … and … several sectors of circles. The first one has radius 8 and it’s like… I guess I’ll do the colours too, it’s pink… and it starts on the x-axis you have the line from zero to 8 …And … then.. the arc of the circle going up to about… I would say … 45 degrees… or pi by 4 if you’re doing it in radians …erm … And then the next sector…er … is purple .. it has a line going from zero to 4 on the y-axis …erm… and then the arc of the circle again 45 degrees connecting to the pink sector …erm .. And then on .. in the second quadrant you have a blue line going from zero to 2 on the y-axis and then the arc of the circle … again 45 degrees around going to the left. And then you have …err.. a cyan one that starts at minus 1 on the x-axis and then has an arc joining to the dark blue circle. And that’s the diagram.
How did you get on? Maybe it was easier because you were reading a transcript, or perhaps you missed out on the intonation of the voice. More about this later.
Continuity or fresh start?
Here’s another question which may help our thinking.
Is the beginning of year 12 a fresh start? Or is continuity from year 11 to year 12 more important?
What’s your view? And what do you think your students think about this on day one of your class?
Let’s deal with some ‘continuity’ issues first. The maths you teach in year 12 builds on the maths which students learned in previous years. A Level maths teachers often report that their new students’ fluency with algebra is the key thing which they wish was better. This is not surprising: the GCSE syllabus includes the algebra that students need, but a good grade at GCSE is certainly no guarantee of algebraic fluency.
Many schools and colleges give their new students work to do in the summer between year 11 and year 12, often focusing on algebraic fluency. You may be aware of the materials which the AMSP have produced. There are two sets of material available, prepared in response to the disruption to learning due to Covid restrictions. The Essential Skills material is a curated collection of pre-existing resources; the Transition to A Level Mathematics course is a course designed from scratch, based around interactive videos and other interactive material. Worth a look!
Also available are the OCR Bridging the gap resource available to students and the Cambridge Elevate revision sheets which are available on Teach Cambridge.
Prove it!
Your students are on a two-year journey. One of the things you hope they will be able to do at the destination is write down a mathematical proof under exam conditions. So what’s the first step on that journey? What could you do right at the beginning of the journey to set off in the right direction? For me, I aimed to establish an ethos where we talk about maths… a lot.
The challenge at the start of this blog comes from the Sector Spirals problem on the Underground Mathematics website. Encouraging students to use mathematical language to ‘say what they see’ feels like a good first step towards explaining their mathematics orally, then writing down their explanations, and then eventually giving a written proof. The whole problem is a good one to use at the start of year 12.
Something completely different
When you start with a new class in year 12 you want to get to know them quickly, but you also want them to understand the ethos you want in your classroom. Why not give them a questionnaire, with questions like the following?
- If you had to explain to someone in year 11 why you chose A Level maths, what would you say?
- What do you enjoy about maths? What do you not like? Why?
- Do you think you are good at taking responsibility for your own learning? To answer this question, think about…
- What do you do if you miss a lesson?
- What do you do if you didn’t understand something in a lesson?
- What do you do if you get stuck on your homework?
- What are you going to do with your study periods?
- Do you laugh when your maths teacher tells a joke?
These are great questions to start a conversation about your expectations that your students will enjoy maths, that they will take increasing responsibility for their learning – and whatever else you want to include. You can find more suggested questions in the MEI Staffroom.
And finally
Thanks to Bethan, the student who, a few years ago, described the diagram for the challenge at the beginning. And congratulations on graduating this summer with a maths degree from Oxford! Quite a journey!
Future professional development events
MEI provides additional support for the OCR B (MEI) AS and A Levels. If you are a teacher of these, you can join the MEI Staffroom. Professional development sessions take place on Tuesday afternoons at 4.00pm and are repeated on Thursday evenings at 7.00pm starting on 24 September. Do sign up if this blog has piqued your interest!
PS – there will be some maths to do!
Stay connected
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If you have any questions, you can email us at maths@ocr.org.uk, call 01223 553998 or message us on X @OCR_Maths. You can also sign up for email updates to receive information about resources and support.
Contact your Examinations Officer to set up access to Teach Cambridge for exam papers, resources and events.
If you are considering teaching any of our qualifications, use our online form to let us know, so that we can help you with more information.
About the author
Keith Proffitt is a Curriculum Developer for Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI). He taught in secondary schools for 25 years, including 13 as Head of Mathematics. He worked for OCR for over 5 years, which included being Qualifications Manager for the MEI A Level specifications in mathematics and further mathematics. Since 2014 he has worked for MEI and has been involved in developing the current OCR B (MEI) maths and further maths qualifications and supporting teachers who teach them with PD and resources. Among other things he also runs some Core Maths PD for the AMSP, masterclasses for pre-university students and serves on the strategic board for the Enigma maths hub. You can contact him at keith.proffitt@mei.org.uk
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