Questions Questions..

I have been busy checking and updating various pages on this blog, taking into account popular resources.
See:

• Problems and Activities 
• Rich Tasks (an odd name really, but one we all recognise!)
• Questions 

Mr Barton Maths
Craig Barton has been working hard redesigning his wesite, Mr Barton Maths. You will find a treasure trove here for teachers and students. Note in particular Craig’s Maths Topic Index Page.

For each topic, you will find information on all the GCSE specifications, a whole variety of resources, questions and more. The pages are very easy to navigate. Note the inclusion of Diagnostic Questions for each topic, a resource which is going from strength to strength this now has over 20,000 Multiple Choice Questions. Multiple Choice Questions when well written like this can be an excellent way of addressing student misconceptions.

For more on Underground Mathematics, an introductory post is here and you can view all posts in the category Underground Mathematics.

Suppose you are interested in Quadratics and want to stretch your students – you’ll find an extensive collection here, As always, for each resource, you will find so much more than just the question and solutions but for example all the printable materials you need and suggestions for teaching with the resource.
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If you create an account you can easily save and organise your favourite resources. This list of favourites can be downloaded as a csv file.
For some of my recent favourites see this Excel file cy-ugmaths-favourites or as a pdf: cy-ugmaths-favourites Note the handy Excel =hyperlink(cell) command for turning the text to a hyperlink).

The favourites facility is sophisticated – you can create sub collections also.

Note Scary Sum – what a lovely problem!

I regularly feature favourite resources; here’s a great way to look at circles! The teddy bear! As with all the resources on Underground mathematics much more than just the problem is available; note the printable/ supporting materials for the teddy bear problem.

I can never resist creating a Desmos page!

One of my resolutions for Maths teachers, one I think applies to teachers of any subject is a reminder about talking to the students about learning and study strategies. Read The Learning Scientists blog for more information and note the excellent downloadable materials on study strategies. Since I wrote that post more slides to use in class with your students are now available, including on Retrieval Practice, a subject I have long been interested in and something I have seen as important all through my teaching career. See my own Low Stakes Testing in the Mathematics Classroom.

Follow @AceThatTest on Twitter or on Facebook.

At ResearchEd 2016 I very much enjoyed Oliver Caviglioli’s session on Visual knowledge for better explanation and recall. Oliver is a trainer of Visual Strategies, he collaborated with The Learning Scientists to create the six posters on effective study strategies. Note his free resources for teachers coming soon, Cognitive Science HOW2s.

Continuing on the theme of retrieval practice, a reminder of a favourite resource, something I have used in my first lessons this week with various classes, Corbett Maths 5-a-day. If you scroll down the GCSE 9-1 collection you will see that Mr Corbett is working on the answers too.

Students appreciate the idea of regular reviews throughout the course.

A reminder of just how useful Twitter can be!

As a member of the TES Maths Panel I have often come across the excellent resources from @Pixi_17. In fact writing the original post on Iterative Techniques (and note the June 16 update with a Further Resources / Questions section) I was able to include a resource of hers on the subject. An extensive collection of quality resources on piximaths.co.uk.