Oh dear! There are two embarrassing statutory requirements about 'time' in the proposed Key Stage 1 Mathematics curriculum, which have led me to send the following message to the Department for Education:
There are two requirements in the Key Stage 1 Mathematics programmes of study for Measurement for pupils to be taught to 'draw hands on clock faces'. This is totally out of place as a statutory requirement. It might be a teaching device adopted by some teachers, but the objective is surely that children should learn to read the time from the hands on a clock face. My experience is that for many children the drawing of the hands on a clock face is much more difficult than the interpretation of it, so it is not even a good teaching method – because it is harder than the skill being taught! It would be embarrassing for these statutory requirements to remain in our national curriculum.
While I was about it, I took the opportunity to request one other piece of editing (see my previous posting):
The notes on the Year 2 requirements for Addition and Subtraction state: 'Recording addition and subtraction in columns supports place value ...'. I am not aware of any evidence to support this assertion, although there is evidence to the contrary. Again, it would be an embarrassment for an unsupported assertion such as this to appear in our national curriculum. Please consider removing the words 'supports place value and' from this sentence. It would be acceptable to say that 'Recording addition and subtraction in columns prepares for formal written methods with larger numbers.'
Showing posts with label Key Stage 1. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Key Stage 1. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
Friday, 22 March 2013
New edition of Haylock & Cockburn
There's the usual excitement at the Haylock household in Norwich to greet another publication: a new edition of Understanding Mathematics for Young Children, written by Anne Cockburn and me. Below is the link to the Sage website for more details.
We have lots of new material in this new (fourth) edition. We have drawn especially on Anne's extensive involvement in international mathematics education organisations to include a Research Focus at the end of each chapter. For example, in the chapter on Understanding Calculations through Patterns and Pictures the Research Focus describes some of the research into children's use of empty number lines for subtraction calculations. Then we also include here and there a Pause for Thought, which is an opportunity to do just that. For example, in the same chapter after explaining how to use hundred squares, all starting with 1 in the top-left hand corner, in a Pause for Thought we ask why it might be that some teachers argue that hundred squares should start with zero rather than 1, and others that we should start counting on a hundred square from the bottom left-hand corner rather than the top.
What else? Well, the book is in full colour on very nice quality paper, and we have some additional photographs of younger children to add to the attraction. Thank you, Sage Publications! We have paid more attention to younger children and taken out some material that was possibly beyond the age range of the book (3 to 8 years). We have a new chapter 7 on Understanding Place Value, which includes discussion of column calculation methods for addition and subtraction, always emphasising the importance of learning with understanding, of course. We have rewritten extensively the final chapter (Understanding Problem Solving and Reasoning in Mathematics) to make it more accessible to teachers in this age range.
Of all the books I have written or co-authored, I still think this is my favourite – and the new edition even more so. So I'm pleased that Sage has found these three wonderful quotes to put on the back cover:
'This book was a delight to read. The mathematical content is excellent and the approach to explaining complex concepts is exceptionally good!' -Dr Jennifer Way, University of Sydney
We have lots of new material in this new (fourth) edition. We have drawn especially on Anne's extensive involvement in international mathematics education organisations to include a Research Focus at the end of each chapter. For example, in the chapter on Understanding Calculations through Patterns and Pictures the Research Focus describes some of the research into children's use of empty number lines for subtraction calculations. Then we also include here and there a Pause for Thought, which is an opportunity to do just that. For example, in the same chapter after explaining how to use hundred squares, all starting with 1 in the top-left hand corner, in a Pause for Thought we ask why it might be that some teachers argue that hundred squares should start with zero rather than 1, and others that we should start counting on a hundred square from the bottom left-hand corner rather than the top.
What else? Well, the book is in full colour on very nice quality paper, and we have some additional photographs of younger children to add to the attraction. Thank you, Sage Publications! We have paid more attention to younger children and taken out some material that was possibly beyond the age range of the book (3 to 8 years). We have a new chapter 7 on Understanding Place Value, which includes discussion of column calculation methods for addition and subtraction, always emphasising the importance of learning with understanding, of course. We have rewritten extensively the final chapter (Understanding Problem Solving and Reasoning in Mathematics) to make it more accessible to teachers in this age range.
Of all the books I have written or co-authored, I still think this is my favourite – and the new edition even more so. So I'm pleased that Sage has found these three wonderful quotes to put on the back cover:
'This book was a delight to read. The mathematical content is excellent and the approach to explaining complex concepts is exceptionally good!' -Dr Jennifer Way, University of Sydney
'I'm a really big fan of this book: it is the single most influential text in my experience of working with primary maths teachers in the last 12 years' - Andy Tynemouth, Every Child Counts National Adviser, Edge Hill University
'Every teacher of maths should read this book! It helped me realize why some children are struggling with doing simple word problems' - Amazon reader review
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
