Sometimes it really does not go as planned … I started a new topic today and gave out a worksheet of algebra questions first, for a bit of practice in manipulating equations and to help remind students of some of the techniques we’d be using before introducing the new topic … but I was somewhat optimistic about their level (hmmm … not for the first time!) and will adjust the next lessons accordingly. The problems I set posed quite a challenge to the more advanced half of the class. I probably should have just pulled the plug on it after students had worked a bit and got bogged down, and got on with the main topic. But I am not sure that would have helped confidence at all, and confidence in algebra is crucial.
On the day I didn’t. I guess I got too involved with working on the issues that were coming up for students … there really is a very very wide range of fluency in algebra within our classes, even with the sorting. This is a middle kind of class. The more advanced ones needed to work a bit to attack this sheet, but the other end was quite lost. I got the chance to do quite a bit of working with small groups, at very different levels, while everyone was busy at their own level. I’ve got to know this class a bit, and have had several opportunities to do this kind of individual work so I knew who was likely to need lots of help, and who might need a few clues to keep going themselves. Today also showed up where the weaknesses where in those who often get the less challenging stuff done easily.
But it isn’t the topic of the moment, and there is lots to be covered right now … I can’t spend time on this, though I’ll need to reassure those that were stuggling that it was indeed a challenging worksheet, and not just for them, and I think I had best hand out a clearly worked answer sheet … I didn’t get the chance to check everyone’s work, and it is important that students can see if they went wrong and ask if need be, since there were some core errors fliating around.
An interesting side-effect was that the need for clear working out was vividly emphasised … many of the more advanced ones tend to jump straight to answers … and they were getting mistakes as a result, and some of the weaker ones started to see a way forward when they set it out properly. That is a lesson that is hard to teach.
All in all, not a good lesson … but there was real math learnt, if not today’s topic, and some of the often bored ones got a good challenge, so not a complete waste, it just puts the pressure on a bit for the other lessons to catch up lost time.