Teaching Mathematics

Teaching Mathematics
The Mathematics Curriculum Framework is divided into four strands, as shown below.

• Number: -Numbers and the number system
– Calculations
– Mental skills

• Problem Solving

• Organising and Using Data

• Shape, Space and Measures: -Patterns and properties of shape
– Properties of position and movement– Measures

The daily mathematics lesson is structured in three parts:
* The mental/oral starter will usually last from 5 to 10 minutes.
Sometimes the work will be related to the rest of the lesson and sometimes it will be independent.

* The main teaching activity will usually last about 30 minutes.
In Nursery and Reception classes, this may be shorter with the whole class

*The plenary session will usually last about 10 mins.
It is important to give time to this part of the lesson and to plan it carefully. It should be long enough to draw out key facts and ideas from the lesson but not too long so that it becomes boring!
Each daily maths lesson has the same basic three-part structure, and will last 45 minutes in all. Within this structure there is a variety ofways of working. What any one lesson looks like will depend upon many factors, such as the age of the children, the topic being taught, and what the teacher's objectives are. The lesson may also take a different form according to where it occurs within the teaching of a mathematical topic.
Over a period of a week, at least 50% of the teaching will involve work with the whole class. In general,at the beginning of a unit of work there will usually be more whole-class work, whereas in the middle of a unit of work there may be more group work.
In order to ensure that every lesson involves all the children, maintains a good pace, and achieves the teaching objectives, teachers need to draw upon a variety of teaching strategies. However, good teaching is participative, with all the childrenpart of an active dialogue. This is a far cry from lecturing children and then providing practice materials.
Oral/mental starter

Oral and mental starter – whole class – 5 to 10 minute minutes

Mental mathematics sessions need to be carried out on a daily basis in order to keep pupils’ skills sharply focused. This should be done on a daily basis if possible and should not be over long i.e.5-10 minutes. The aim of these sessions is to practise and consolidate already learned skills and facts rather than to teach new ones
Mental mathematics sessions should aim to be interesting and stimulating
Therefore it is vital that each mathematics lesson has a crisp start, and that the children are involved right away in some mathematics with which they can all engage.
During the firstpart of the lesson, the teacher almost always works directly with the whole class. The children do mental and oral work and often there will not be anything written down or recorded. This is not the time where new mathematical topics are introduced. Rather, it is the occasion when many vital mathematical skills, which benefit from, or require, small amounts of practice on a very regular basis, canbe visited, rehearsed and developed, discuss how to solve a problem and providing examples to match a general statement, review homework.
Sometimes this part of the lesson will rehearse skills that are needed in or which link to the main part of the lesson. More commonly, you can use it to practise skills which need frequent reinforcement.
In this first part of the lesson you may choose toinclude:
* counting in all its shapes and forms - saying or singing counting rhymes and songs; counting jumps or handclaps; counting on or back one so as to recognise 'the number after' and 'the number before'; counting in 1s, 10s, 100s, in 5s,2s, in 3s,etc ,
* recalling number facts rapidly, including addition and subtraction facts, and multiplication and division facts, discussing...