What to teach a very weak LC Maths class

Jane98

Hi,
I am a NQT and have just started teaching a 6th year LC Maths class who are very weak. I tried to do some revision of 5th year stuff they had covered last year but got a lot of blank looks and not many correct answers.
I think my best bet will have to be to cut down the course and concentrate on a number of key sections. Any ideas which areas I should concentrate on and which areas I should definitely leave out?
Or should I touch briefly on all topics, just covering the easier stuff?

spurious

Build on what they know. They will be demoralised enough knowing themselves that they don't understand sections.
Do as many of the practical 'make sense in real life' topics as you can and make sure they are well able to answer any examples of those questions that come up.

Monotype

I think that calculus is a good area to concentrate on, with three questions in paper 1 based on the area - differentiation from first principles is a bit different but can be learned if they follow steps carefully. Be sure to highlight how similar these areas are as they have to be able to equate the question being asked to the work to be completed. Key words which differentiate what is being asked should be highlighted.
Power rules are important in all questions, so they should know these inside out - try to bring them into every topic and use examples at least once a week.

Briefly touching each topic or heavily concentrating in areas before moving onto the next - you need a more cumulative approach as knowledge will evaporate if it's not covered recently.

Always encourage attempts and neat layouts as well as careful algorithm following.

highly1111

I agree. Definitely calculus. I had a very weak maths group last year but they got calculus - but geometry was an absolute no go. Also stats and combinations and permutations is a good question for them. And q1 of course - both papers. Its all practise practise practise. As soon as a topic is covered - go straight onto papers and do them to death!

Ignore the part c's if they're very weak. I just focussed on the part a and b's and it got most of them over the line.

Also, if they're in serious danger of failing, recommend foundation. Better foundation maths than a pass fail. (get them to talk to guidance counsellor first though)

HTH

jonseyblub

highly1111 wrote: »

Ignore the part c's if they're very weak. I just focussed on the part a and b's and it got most of them over the line.

Also, if they're in serious danger of failing, recommend foundation. Better foundation maths than a pass fail. (get them to talk to guidance counsellor first though)

HTH

Can't recommend this enough. One of the main reasons in my opinion for the high failure rate at OL is that there are too many students who are doing it that should be doing FL but because they 'need' it for college continue to do it anyway.

Don't totally ignore all the part c's when doing revision. You'll find in some questions that there are definitely parts they should be able to do. Co-ordinate geometry, Area and volume, and some of the calculus q's frequently have part C's that are sometimes easier than part B's.

Big thing you need to get into their head if they are a weak class is that they should never give up on a question. I got my 6th Years 2 years ago to do a particular paper and told them that no matter what they were to attempt each question even if they thought they hadn't a clue.
The next day I got the official marking scheme and we went through each Q to show them how many marks their answers gave them. Each of them passed the paper even though they thought they wouldn't.

highly1111

Jonseyblub is right about the part c's - i shouldn't have made a blanket statement like that - some of them are doable and can just be a matter of algebra!

However, I did remind mine that the a and b parts are 60% of the paper so not to get demoralised if they couldn't do the part c but of course to attempt them. However,
I didn't spend that much time on them in class to be honest unless l thought it was doable for that particular paper. But my class was very very very weak.

Good luck - sometimes teaching the weakest class is the most rewarding teaching of all.

boogle

I have a LC OL class like this at the moment. (10 out of 12 applied to do LCA but there was no LCA class that year). I've been told by management that they all must do OL, no FL. I'm really struggling to get anywhere with them. Their understanding of basic maths is so bad. I'm doing Complex numbers at the minute and it's torture. I'm also leaving out some of the more difficult questions in each topic, I can't see how I'll get the syllabus covered otherwise.