Developing and embedding Maths and English skills into
Developing and embedding Maths and English skills into vocational lessons Friday 21 st October 2016 Gavin Jolley (AP for MAE & English Lecturer) Gavin. jolley@northamptoncollege. ac. uk Ext. 4196, D 1. 09 Sharon Bunker (Maths Co-ordinator & Maths Lecturer) Sharon. bunker@northamptoncollege. ac. uk D 1. 09
Aim & Learning objectives Aim: to cover a range of relevant teaching and learning approaches which will help you to better embed English and Maths into your lessons. Objectives: 1) To identify and explain your own current embedding of Maths and English. 2) To experiment with and practice a wide range of vocationally relevant Maths and English T&L activities and strategies. 3) To evaluate and assess which methods of embedding Maths and English which you will now use in your own teaching.
Vocabulary Boards in college Do not just think of the vocabulary board as places to display words broken down into syllables, usefully extend the use of the boards. Display … Technical words related to your vocational area Key terminology How the word is used in context within a sentence Sayings (mnemonics) that are reminders for students Definitions Synonyms- words that mean the same thing The different spellings when pluralised Ask students to copy them with syllables chunked into a word bank Use some overlearning strategies and ask students to work in groups to develop the sounds, spelling, articulation, meaning and use in their writing.
Remember … keep them fresh, change the words regularly. font should be comic sans, size 72. You can ask Tom Hewitt who works in the Library to prepare words for you. You can email Tom the words you have written on your board during a lesson which you would like preparing for your vocabulary board.
Energiser & Starter 1) In pairs please create one vocabulary board with at least 4 words (2 each) which you use regularly in your own subject. Use the cards provided and stick them on the wall. Break the words into syllables, for example: Ae-ro-dy-na-mic ga-stro-cne-mi-us 2) Using your own two words as a starting point, create a 10 word spelling test based on technical vocabulary needed in a recent or current topic/unit which you have taught or are teaching. Design it so it increases in difficulty with simple monosyllabic words at the beginning and very complex polysyllabic words at the end.
Northampton College’s OFSTED report (2013)- Maths and English What does the college need to do to improve further? Increase opportunities for students’ English and mathematical skills to be developed through their subject lessons, for example by ensuring that teachers take responsibility for improving students’ vocabulary and use suitable opportunities to consolidate and enhance students’ mathematical skills.
Quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment: Teachers contextualise and reinforce English and mathematical skills well in the majority of subjects. For example, hairdressing students develop good subjectbased essay writing and presentation skills. However, these strengths are not widespread across provision and teachers do not make enough use of opportunities, for example, to ensure students are confident in using technical language.
Which English skills are employers looking for? The ability to listen with comprehension. Being able to speak and articulate clearly and coherently. Read and understand a variety of documents. Write fluently and accurately: reports, emails, spreadsheets, powerpoints, letters etc. Use accepted business conventions of format, spelling, punctuation and gramma Relate to customers effectively and politely.
Top Tips for Embedding English Quick spelling tests out of 10 based on current topic. Use glossaries into which students write new technical vocabulary which they have learnt, along with their definitions. Use the vocab boards to spell more complex words through the syllables. Proof reading a given text with mistakes or proof read each other’s work (peer assess) Use interactive English games for starters/plenaries (www. echalk. co. uk) BBC skillswise http: //www. bbc. co. uk/skillswise/english/games is excellent for English games and worksheets- vocationally relevant Skills workshop website is very useful for contextually linked resources: www. skillsworkshop. org Ensure that you mark spelling (sp), punctuation (punc) and grammar (gr) (SPa. G) in students’ work and set them English targets on the stickie target sheets Use the college literacy sheets (on the intranet). Use the form time website: http: //formtimeideas. com/
Importance of Maths The majority of young people who do not obtain a good maths GCSE go into FE colleges. Slightly under half of young people do not gain at least a C grade at GCSE maths, 6 while around three quarters of fulltime. Students who have not achieved a maths GSCE at grade C or above by the age of 16 enter FE colleges. This suggests the critical importance of good maths education in vocational settings.
Maths: What employers want. • Mental arithmetic without the use of a calculator; • The ability to interpret and respond to quantitative data; • The ability to calculate percentages and interpret their significance; • The ability to work comfortably with fractions, decimals and ratios; Awareness of different measures and the ability to convert between them; • Instinct to pause and check potentially rogue results and calculation errors; • Basic understanding of odds and probabilities
Top Tips for Embedding Maths Every good teacher already teaches English, maths and ICT; it’s just a matter of highlighting them during your lessons. Include details in the numeracy box in the new lesson plan template. Show them the relevance, where they will use it. Don’t shoehorn it in to tick a box. Use card activities/ puzzles that are quick and fun. Try a maths energiser to start your lesson/problem solving. Again www. echalk. co. uk is good. If your lesson features some kind of numerical data, get students to translate it into graphs and tables. Good websites: http: //www. excellencegateway. org. uk/interactive-resources/numeracy http: //schoolsimprovement. net/guest-post-top-tips-for-embedding-literacy-andnumeracy-across-the-curriculum/ http: //www. statisticsonline. org/subtangent/30 -maths-starters. pdf
Aim & Learning objectives Aim: to cover a range of teaching and learning approaches which will help you to better embed English and Maths into your lessons. Objectives: 1) To identify and explain your own current embedding of Maths and English. 2) To experiment with and practice a wide range of Maths and English T&L activities and strategies. 3) To evaluate and assess which methods of embedding Maths and English which you will now use in your own teaching.
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