Secondary maths teaching resources and reflections
Isosceles Triangles and Angle Filtering ResourcesDownload My year 11s are really struggling with 'seeing' angles. Even in cases where there are only two or three 'steps' to solving a problem. I've found a lot of resources out there are aimed at the beginning stages of using angle reasons, and plenty of exam-style questions bringing loads … Continue reading Building Up Angle Reasoning
I love writing questions. It's fascinating to try and structure an activity or a task to elicit a train of thought that builds to understanding. When I do it, I learn more about the underlying structure of the maths as well as the pedagogical building blocks to get there. It's complex, subtle and bloody difficult … Continue reading Task Writing – Unintended Consequences
Reasoning With Angles In Parallel Lines ResourcesDownload The first image below is designed as a prompt for identifying equal corresponding angles. I chose to use this as it begins to get pupils filtering information, a key feature of the previous angles posts in this series. In presenting this image to pupils, it was important to … Continue reading Reasoning With Angles in Parallel Lines
Reasoning With Interior AnglesDownload In the previous post in this series I looked at different derivations for the sum of interior angles. This post focuses on using that information in different ways once a level of fluency has been attained. This generates a lot of discussion with pupils about symmetry, as some pupils spot that … Continue reading Reasoning With Interior Angles
Interior Angle Sum DerivationsDownload There are pros and cons to every derivation we use for a formula - not every sequence of deduction will click at each stage with every kids. For interior angle sums, the derivation often shown in textbooks relies on drawing triangles from a single vertex. While this makes perfect sense to … Continue reading Interior Angle Sum Derivations
Concave Polygon ResourcesDownload When should we introduce directed angles? Bearings seems like an obvious place, but bearings is a hit and miss bit of content, and seems to be disconnected from the geometry pantheon in a lot of curriculum mappings I've worked with in the past. It's a component of A Level that pupils find … Continue reading Concave Polygons
Exterior Angles of Convex PolygonsDownload The next step in my sequencing of angle content is exterior angles. I really struggle with sequencing of content in angles because I find my opinion changes quickly and often. The biggest issue I have is where to put parallel line angles. If they come before angles in polygons you … Continue reading Exterior Angles of Convex Polygons
Filtering With Basic Angle Facts ResourcesDownload In my previous post I discussed labelling angles and focusing on angles as a turn. In this post, all of the tasks are designed to encourage filtering. By filtering, I mean seeing and noticing the specific aspects of a geometrical figure one at a time. This is really difficult … Continue reading Filtering With Basic Angle Facts
Angle Labels (Animations, Tasks and Answers)Download Using Formal Notation (Slides and Notes)Download Using Formal Notation (Task and Answers)Download Labelling angles is difficult. Even asking kids what angles actually measure is difficult. Seeing a turn instead of a line or distance takes practice, and pupils need to be nudged to reckon with these differences. In the … Continue reading Understanding Angle Labels
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