Maths differentiation in a classroom

[herdream1]

Would anyone please explain how this can be done, when there is only one teacher with one TA?

Example in year 4, if the children were anywhere between level 2 and 5, what exactly (should) happen during the maths lessons, if all children were to be taught at their levels??

I find it hard to imagine this. Many thanks.

When I was at school this was managed by one teacher, no TA, by giving workbooks to each pupil based on their ability, the teacher then worked round the class individually for problems.
We had four maths lessons a week and this was how two of the four worked.
One of the others per week was almost a lecture on a topic, for instance mean, mode, etc, which was taught from a basic level and then got more difficult. How well you responded to this/thought you could manage would depend on the workbook you got about it when you got a workbook lesson on that subject.
Then the forth lesson was more on practical application and projects - for example design your own play area outside and we'd all get to drawer pictures and then the teacher would include us learning about angles, etc from our drawings.

This was from my first year of senior school though so a bit older? But everyone but one person in our class passed their GCSE maths exam a few years later so it can't have done us any damage but we had been deprecated into ability groups by then.

It can be done if the teacher uses a few different approaches and makes sure everyone is happy with their level but still getting challenged.

*separated not deprecated

Couthy Yes, we do! Last year I had 1b to 6+ in my cohort. It is very hard work, but it is do-able.

It's my job to get and keep them motivated by finding the right activities. We sing songs, cut stuff up, count real things, move around the room, write things down, draw diagrams, play bingo and snap... we use printed, interactive and tangible resources. We use real examples. We act it out. We go outside. We spot patterns (one group are spotting that we're counting up in fives, while another are drawing Fibonacci spirals). We eat Smarties after we've worked out how many is half of the pack or the ratio of pink to red and what percentage are not green.

And when I've done a maths lesson like that, we do English differentiated just as widely. Then I start the guided reading.

You'll need - a) I wish my DC's primary Maths teachers were able to, and b) my DD didn't grasp her number binds to 10 until halfway through Y7, so counting in 5's was beyond her...