DogmeEAL: ‘maths teachers’

By Pete on June 22, 2024 • ( 1 )

Context: Year 10 support class, only three learners, 1 hour

Materials: whiteboards, pens

Lead-in: What lesson did you just have and how was it?

Learner responses – maths, so-so because we had a test.

We discussed some of the test topics. One learner said they were quite easy: sequences, ratios, fractions, etc. Another mentioned volume of 3D shapes, and there was some murmurs of this being trickier as the questions were about quite weird shapes (drinking flasks with pointy necks and stuff). It sounded like quite a broad review of topics, probably low stakes after our end of year exams.

Me: Okay. I haven’t studied maths for 23 years and I can’t really remember much about what you’re talking about. So…

Pre-task: Choose your topic from the ones mentioned (multiplying/dividing fractions, sequences, ratios, area and volume).

⁃ you’ve 10 minutes and a wall-sized whiteboard each. Prepare to explain your concept to me

⁃ Don’t forget, 23 years is a long time! Don’t assume too much! Plan ways to check my prior knowledge. You’re the teacher!

⁃ You need to write your own practice questions for me. I’m going to do them live, and you can talk me through them if I’m struggling!

Task: learners quickly drew lots of diagrams and notes. After 10 minutes (bit longer), they described their concept to the rest of the class.

Bear in mind that there were only four of us, so this was a great opportunity for questioning, also for moments of translanguaging/mediation. They already knew the content, but the task helped identify language they needed, stuff that trips them up in exams.

A good example of this was from the learner describing 3D shapes. She took on board what I said about prior knowledge and reviewed area and perimeter of 2D shapes first. She clearly knew this like the back of her hand, yet between those two topics she didn’t yet know the words perimeter, length/width/height (only long, wide, high), breadth (as alternative to width in some questions I’ve seen), then things like cylinder, prism, and so on.

The learners went easy on me with the practice questions. That said, I still hammed it up with the ‘so, I think I need to…’ And ‘hmmm what should I do next…’ to elicit more mathsy language and prompts from the learners.

Post-task 1: exploratory questions. I had questions about certain topics and I had 3 maths experts in front of me. I was genuinely interested.

‘So, you explained this formula to work out the nth value when differences between numbers in a sequence are constant. What about if the difference changes but it’s still a sequence in a way? Like 2, 6, 8, 12, 14, 18… so the difference is four, then two, then four… etc’

I didn’t have to know the answer myself – it was just a good opportunity for learners to rehearse maths talk in our safe space. We even asked some questions about certain concepts to one of our maths teachers via Google Chat, who chipped in with some micro-teaching. Something about quadratic this or that – I just nodded along…

Post-task 2: vocab consolidation. Gaps identified, vocab in play to an extent. Learners record new words, translate them. I scribble them down on paper and cut them up – learners organize by topic, test each other with little language games, etc.

How did it go down?

Ah, massive gain. The funds of knowledge for our learners maths-wise is very strong. These concepts are taught earlier in the curriculum in their home country (according to the students that is), and it was still just a review – the curriculum at KS4 goes much deeper of course. But the vocab gaps are tripping them up. ‘Understanding as performance’ tasks like this that consolidate content are a super useful tool to identify these gaps.

Is it DogmeELT?

Well, it’s based around genuine learner needs AND interests in my context. It’s convo-driven. Materials light. Reactive scaffolding for oracy I guess. Yeah, why not – it’s Dogme. I think. Doesn’t really matter what it is – it had clear measurable impact re: key vocab development.

To develop personally

I’m in the process of developing my subject knowledge in this area. I’m not *terrible*, and make out I’m worse on purpose to get the learners speaking at times, but I’m *definitely* not strong. How I got an A in Maths as GCSE I don’t know, because it is pretty complicated – but some of it comes back to me now and then. Anyhow – I need to work on my subject knowledge in this area for sure!

Image from Greg Rosenke.