Trying to use variation theory My thinking A question to start Reversing the terms. Does balancing still work? A subtraction. How does this effect our balance. Does reversing the terms still lead us to the same answer Increasing the constant by one. What happens? Also: a decimal answer. We can have a negative answer Divide x, instead of multiplying it. Increasing co-efficient of x by one. What happens to our answer? Doubling co-efficient of x. Not sure about these last two. I think they may be a step back from question 7. This is the problem with presenting these in a linear format. These questions are variations on question 1, not question 7. I might experiment with some kind of spider diagram. Doubling the divisor from 7. Again, maybe the linear way these are written is a bit rubbish. Don’t know how I like the order of these questions, but there’s lots to think about and something to tweak. I have found the transition to asking ‘why have they asked you that question? What are they trying to tell you?’ has been difficult for some students, but I think it’s worth devoting time to it. If students are inspecting questions for things like this, maybe they’re more likely to read the question thoroughly and pick out it’s mathematics. Big hope, I know.

Not sure how I feel about some of the decisions here. I’ve introduced a bit of index laws towards the end of the sheet. Is this madness? I thought I would add it to reinforce the difference between simplifying powers and simplifying regular expressions. Maybe it’s too much. As usual here’s my little justification for the first 10 questions. A simple one to start If you change the letter, it’s the same process You can have multiples of terms And it doesn’t matter where in the expression they occur You can have 3 terms And it doesn’t matter where in the expression they occur Introducing a negative for the first time. At the end to make it easier But the negative can occur anywhere! Here it actually makes you use negatives unless you collect the terms first Introducing terms like bc. It’s not the same as b + c We can do some division Later questions cover stuff like ab being the same as ba. I quite like the last question

Some prior knowledge stuff Example problem pairs Exercises involving finding the area, but also finding the radius/angle, although when I reteach this at a later point I think I’ll add more of these in A learning check

Loads of stuff here. (But no rearranging that requires factorisation) Example problem pairs. At least 5 different activities. A discussion about what it means for something to be the subject of an equation. An activity just asking pupils if the first step is correct (I think this is quite important). Some mini whiteboard work. A stardard exercise. An activity where they have to rearrange scientific formulas (is SMSC still a thing?)

PowerPoint on column multiplication. *Starter with a focus on commutativity etc *Example problem pair to teach with *Some questions (a bit of a boring exercise, sorry) *A blooket *5 QQ to finish.

Not much here. A starter, an example problem pair set, a good exercise and some questions to do some AfL at the end.

What is the hypotenuse? Finding the hypotenuse Finding the shorter side Mixed Questions I taught this over two lessons. There’s no fun questions here at all. This is all practice, practice, practice. I want my students to get the skills down before applying them.

Includes a worksheet that I think is really good (not blowing my own trumpet) and some random whiteboard questions, along with the usual stuff (example problem pair/questions/answers/learning check). Got some variation theory stuff in there, too. You should check out this resource by @edsouthall to use alongside this PowerPoint. It’s really good NOTE : I change my stuff every time I teach. I add new stuff and correct errors. But I don’t always have time to reupload them to TES. The latest version of the PowerPoint can always be found here.

Designed to be used as a starter to get students to understand what a system of equations IS. Place in the Venn diagram pairs of coordinates that fit each section. Hopefully the pupils think it takes ages by trail and improvement. Then you say “Well, I have a method for solving these much more easily” You introduce the substitution or elimination method and they all look on, enraptured by the mathematical knowledge you’re imparting and the ‘short cut’ to doing these questions you’re showing them. No answers are provided as there is a infinite set of answers either side of the intersection.

Just some practice questions on applying the Sine Rule

Lesson on measuring and constructing bearings. No calculations here, making that as a separate lesson. Covers compass points as well.

Some example problem pairs, two exercises (including dividing an multiplying by negatives)

A collection of 7 starters designed for students to think about things not always explicitly taught. ie Is the result 2 or 1/2 Is the trailing 0 needed? Is a 1 needed?

Example problem pair Two activities Some application questions Learning check NOTE : I update my slides often but don’t always get around to reuploading them here. The latest version of this PowerPoint can always be found at this link.

Trying to aim for a mastery/in depth lesson, rather than getting all the index laws done in one lesson. Huge credit to Jo Morgan (@mathsjem). Nicked a lot from her for this resource.

Example problem pair Two exercises. A distinct powerpoint from the the non calculator percentage questions.

Loads of examples, some questions and some exam questions focused on the different types of solving equations involving fractions questions students might see. Note there is no quadratic stuff, nor any examples where the unknown appears on both sides.

6 starters that help students connect the different words for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Lots of questions like ‘6 and 4 more’ and ‘4 lots of 6’ and ‘4 increased by 6’

Quadratics of the form ax^2 + bx + c Example problem pair, some questions, some examples where a and c are not prime and then some exam questions. Personally I use the grid method (Check out Jo Morgan’s Compendium of Mathematical Methods!)

Work out the mean from a list Work out a missing number given a mean No median, no mode. Deliberately. Includes a starter, two example problem pairs, two exercises, a quiz and a learning summary.