10 IDEAS FOR IMPACT


So you have textbooks … so what? by Siobhan King, Primary Mathematics Adviser


I have been thinking about maths textbooks: what they add to lessons and how they can be used effectively. I am a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel and know that teacher time is finite and exceptionally valuable.


In the course of my work, I have seen very few of these ‘high-quality textbooks’ and I have come to the conclusion that we need to be clever about making the best of the resources available to us. With this in mind, I have tried to pick out what I think are some of the pitfalls and come up with some suggestions as to how maths texts books could be used most effectively.


USE VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS CLEVERLY


I believe one of the best things about maths text- books is that they often provide visual models for calculations or concepts, which help me to support children in understanding the maths they are learning. Of course, it is important not to be tempted to completely miss the concrete explo- ration, which is so vital for children to develop their mathematical understanding.


I have found that these key areas of discussion can uncover misconceptions, develop precise use of mathematical vocabulary and offer the chance for creativity in mathematical thinking. In addition, I have seen how working in this way can really help children to see themselves as math- ematicians, and help everyone to feel that they have something to say and truly engage them in their learning.


To use visuals in maths textbooks cleverly, I think that


it is useful to introduce them to children


without the precision of labels and numbers, in the first instance.


By showing a model that does not lead pupils to immediately calculate an answer, mathematical discussions can be opened up from questions such as:


“What do you notice?” “What could the problem be about?” “What questions would you like to ask?” “What other information would you need to work that out?”


By taking away the detail and then adding it back to a visual, you can then model and reason with children about how to unpick the problem. This element of working mathematically can other- wise be difficult to develop from textbooks, where worked examples, with labelled visuals, move quickly to a bank of abstract problems. Moving from visual to abstract and becoming very precise too quickly, children can’t help themselves but head straight for the “plug in the numbers to the worked example and off we go” mentality, and the deeper understanding is lost. This becomes an even bigger problem if there isn’t enough variety in the problems presented. I would wholeheartedly agree that children need to practise their maths skills, but when does doing more of the same become pointless?


DEVELOP TEACHING SEQUENCES FROM YOUR CHILDREN


A pitfall that I have seen with some textbooks is how they are organised in terms of curric- ulum coverage, for example with operations being taught completely separately. I don’t


Exploring G Suite for Education in primary schools by Ryan Fisher, Journalist


G Suite for Education, along with the potential benefits of Chromebooks for primary schools, was first brought to the attention of Dan Cumber- land, ICT Coordinator at Peartree Primary School, Stevenage, last year by the ICT services team at HfL. Although predominately used by secondary schools, Dan noticed how G Suite for Education has a lot of potential in a primary school and how it could advance the technology at the school. Since then, it has been a roaring success.


G Suite for Education is a combination of online software tools, including Google Drive (for sharing individual files, with unlimited Cloud storage), Google Classroom (a virtual learning environment), and Google Docs, Sheets and Slides (an alternative to Microsoft office).


“We really wanted to solve a few issues that the school was having with technology,” explained Dan.


“The iPads are a fantastic bit of kit but can be limited with the functions they have, especially when it comes to office software such as Word. Also laptops can take time to set up and servers are sluggish. So I had a look at G Suite as another option.”


Dan began to research a bit more into G Suite for Education and took part in training to become a certified Google educator, to understand whether this is something they could pursue. After discussion with staff members and the headteacher, the school worked with the ICT services team at HfL to have the Google solution installed along with 32 new Chromebooks. The team then provided the ongoing technical support for the Google solution.


“I think the biggest thing I wanted to get across when speaking to my staff was that collabo- rative learning. Pupils really enjoy being able to work on a document together, and the Chromebooks provide a great platform to do


that and share with their teacher.”


“It also benefits staff too as they can easily monitor work to see who has done what, who has contrib- uted the most and look at pupils’ work as they are doing it. It is pretty much a virtual-learning wall.”


“It has taken a bit of getting used to and training was needed. Things can go wrong at times, espe- cially as pupils get to grips with the technology, but I told staff to just persevere with it because in the long term the Chromebooks will make a difference.”


Chromebooks are devices similar to normal laptops, except that they run the Chrome oper- ating system, and access programs and files from the cloud. This means they are fast to start up, they have a long battery life and they can be managed from a central, online portal. Pupils can log into any Chromebook, using their own G


Suite for Education accounts, to access their own work and the suite of tools available to them.


“Obviously, there are lot of eSafety issues we have had to sort out prior to using the Chromebooks. There are obviously barriers and things we should consider with any piece of technology, but that should not stop us from using them or trying out new equipment,” Dan added.


“The ICT Services team at HfL have been para- mount in providing key support and guidance to us in our journey starting with a demo of the Google system, installation, guidance in picking the correct device and then the ongoing support.”


“The biggest issue the school now has with Chromebooks is that they are constantly being booked out. The school is already speaking to the team at Herts for Learning to purchase another 64 Chromebooks.”


Staff feedback from the school:


“Really big part of our computing scheme and we can combine it with certain apps such as Scratch that they can access at home.”


“Beneficial for group reading and accessing books and reading materials online”


want to teach addition on Monday and subtrac- tion on Tuesday, as I want to develop children’s understanding of


the connectivity between


these operations. I certainly don’t want a lesson focused around a bank of addition word problems, because I know my children will just work out that they need to find the numbers in the text and add them together; and where is the maths in that?


In fact, I would argue that textbook writers are going to find it hard to develop a teaching sequence that best meets the needs of the children we teach, by virtue of the fact that they don’t know them. Teachers know their children: their daily experiences, the topics they are covering this year, their mathematical strengths and areas for development. For me, textbooks are best used therefore to support teachers in seeing how concepts can be developed, and the range of experiences and activities which could be used to support pupils in gaining deeper understand- ing. Fundamentally, I believe that it is not the text- books that will make the difference, but what we, as teachers, do with them.


THE EXCHANGE


To find out more about the features of G Suite with Chromebooks and how this solution can work for your school, please contact Shahid Sahil: shahid.sahil@hertsforlearning.co.uk


Alternatively visit HfL’s blog post, written by HfL’s Computing and eDevelopments Adviser, Chris Carter: http://bit.ly/TE-GSuiteBlog


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