Do your pupils forget core maths strategies?
Remembering maths strategies is hard going but not impossible. Try these seven ideas to embed mathematical strategies once and for all!
Remember the maths
- Repeat the strategy verbally working through examples, step by step.
- Model the strategy silently, asking a child to narrate as you model.
- Ask pupils to talk their partners through the strategy, missing one key step. Partners have to identify the missing step.
- Ask pupils to create an instructional poster for the strategy or make a vlog to explain it.
- Provide the strategy steps on strips of paper. Ask pupils to order the steps as rapidly as they can. As a challenge, throw in a random step to see if they can identify it as unnecessary.
- Share the strategy with parents and carers to ensure no confusion between home and school approaches.
- Buy some menu holders and place strategy posters inside them. Put a menu holder on each table.
Why are they good strategies?
Many mathematical strategies can contain multiple steps, making them easy to forget! Once a strategy is fully understood and embedded, it can become automatic, making the work easier.
Tip
Once a strategy is embedded, remove the support and scaffolding to allow pupils to retrieve the steps from their memory instead.