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The National Curriculum statement on language suggests three areas to include in the teaching of all subjects: 1. general accuracy in using language -spoken, written and read; 2. technical terms and concepts appropriate to the subject; 3.
awareness of patterns of language. In mathematics, general accuracy in using language can be promoted through: interpreting questions posed orally or in writing; clarifying the precise meaning of words or mathematical terms; discussing the essential ideas identified in the questions and interpreting them to identify the mathematical content. Click here for the whole document. |
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Here is a frame that a Year 5/6 class developed to help them with their work on mathematical investigations:
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Broadly speaking there are three stages in looking up
any piece of information. These are: finding, understanding and using.
The last two are separate but tend to be fused together
since the easiest way of checking that a new idea has been
understood is by asking for it to be used. Questions can be graduated such as the exemplars that
are given below: Set
A
These are concerned almost solely with finding
information and copying out the
appropriate word or number. The page number is given, the keyword is printed in
bold and there is no requirement for any (mathematical)
understanding. 1. {Page 68}
In
what year was Pythagoras born?
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Listening carefully to the discussions, the teacher rephrased Ned's suggestion in order to make sure she had accurately captured his thinking, to help him focus on the important mathematical concepts, and to guide him in considering how this problem is related to those more familiar to him. Ned's response gave her important assessment information about whether he understood his method for adding whole numbers. Although he was able to use an algorithm to add whole numbers, he lacked an understanding of the concepts behind the procedure and therefore was unsure if or how it could be used or adapted for this new purpose. Click
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You may feel like the mathematics you can do is simple and obvious (doesn't everybody know what Pythagoras’ Rule is?), but you can be sure that other people find it bewilderingly complex. It becomes increasingly important, therefore, that you can explain what you're doing to others that might be interested: your parents and in the future your boss and even the media. However the simplest reasons for writing in a maths class is that writing helps you to learn mathematics better. By explaining a difficult concept to other people, you end up explaining it to yourself.
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