NQT in New School - Assessing Y7 Prior Knowledge (Maths)

[NotQuiteThere]

I'm starting in a new school in September (NQT year). As part of my first lesson with Y7, I'd like to do some assessment of their prior knowledge so that I know how to pitch the topics on the scheme of work - and who will be likely to need more support or challenge.

Is there an engaging way of doing this? My first thought is to give them a summative assessment with traditional questions, then add an additional question to each topic such as "make up your own question about.... e.g. perimeter" to see what the extent of their learning is. Then to mark with comments only (no scores or grades, maybe questions or corrections).

Would love to hear the suggestions from other teachers!

I teach secondary English, not Maths, but perhaps the first lesson of the year is not the right one for doing this? I would give them one or two lessons to get to know you and to show them what secondary maths is like (i.e. make them fall in love with this exciting subject).

I know from my Maths colleagues that there are various pieces of software that enable you to find out the NC level (yes, I know they're ancient; my school still uses them) of any Maths question so Maths teachers can create quizzes or tests or worksheets that include different questions on the same topic that give varying levels of challenge. Probably you're aware of this already; I'm not a Maths teacher .

Also your HoD may have something in place already for doing this, so perhaps speak to them, and others in your department too. Good luck!

Surely it's also important to know the methods they use for calculations? And how they go about using and applying? What their reasoning is like? You'll have their end of year 6 levels to give you a starting point and your colleagues are likely to know how reliable these are based on the feeder school. I agree that you need to start off by getting them excited. And as a primary maths specialist (and former year 6 teacher) please done under estimate what they can already do - my DS said he didn't learn anything new in year 7. Finally, the schools round here all seem to do some kind I'd baseline testing at the start of year 7. But if you want to find out a bit more yourself, why not give a question for each of the 4 number operations (so nice and short!) and ask them to use their favourite method of working it out. To extend you could the ask them to make each question harder in whatever wY they like - that will tell you a lot about their understanding.

I'm a maths teacher. Most schools do some sort of formal baseline assessment at the start of Y7 so hold off on doing anything major until you know what the department has planned.

Are you teaching a set or a mixed ability group? You should be given their KS2 SATs results with the class list so you can see straight away who your weakest students are (level 3 and below). Students on a level 6 will be very bright, but it is worth remembering that not all schools enter students for the level 6 paper so you might have level 5 students who are as quick as your level 6 ones. Check the KS2 raw scores for more info as results aren't sub-levelled. A student who gets close to 100 on the 3-5 paper is going to be good.

If students are not setted, when will they be put into sets, and will the very weakest have any TA support or be taken out for intervention?

Check any SEN info carefully, this will be important for setting up your seating plan. Make sure any statemented kids who have TA support are seated somewhere where the TA can sit next to them.

First lesson you need to get them in a seating plan, hand out exercise books, get them to put their details on them, introduce yourself, set up expectations etc, so don't plan a full lesson's work.

Hi, thank you for your posts.

They won't be setted for the first year, so will be mixed ability all through Y7. I agree that a "test" on the first lesson won't endear me to them! I haven't planned to start the SoW in the first lesson, so we're going to spend a bit of time on getting to know each other and also mutual expectations in the classroom.

Although individual assessment would give me the most detail, perhaps something like a relay exercise in pairs might be more fun, and if I can keep their workings it could give me some insight into the methods used in the classroom.

I've got 3 days in school before term starts, so will ask the questions posed - I think the first formal assessment will be at Christmas.

I taught Y7 mixed ability, bottom and middle abilities last year, but I'm struggling to put my lesson plans together at the moment! I think I've forgotten how to teach during the summer....

It's the different ways in which the children have been taught at primary school which are what I'm really interested in, an example being the ways in which they have been taught long multiplication and division. I found that it was one of the causes of becoming unstuck in lessons sometimes last year. Operations of fractions was another one!

When you say 'getting to know each other', what do you mean?

I wouldn't get them competing against each other in a mixed ability classroom, especially if I didn't know the class, unless it was something basic like a times tables challenge. Having kids on a level 3 competing publicly against kids on a level 6 in order to assess their abilities on the primary curriculum would be pretty demoralising.

Tbh, I would get started straight away on the SOW. Show that you mean business. I wouldn't also plan anything too 'exciting' in a getting up and doing stuff way to start with. It's a big week for them starting secondary school, they will be nervous, you'll be unfamiliar, their class will be unfamiliar to them and the last thing that some of them will be wanting on top is enforced jollity. What's your first topic? Give them something they can all do to help them feel secure, with some harder questions thrown in so that the better ones can shine.

Don't forget not all of them will be able to read.

You may have their reading ages. But if not you should have their English SATs. Level 3s probably can't read well enough

Also, it would be a good idea to get yourself some KS2 maths papers (available online) and sit down and work through them to see what sort of thing was expected of them in primary school. Look carefully at the level boundaries.

Long multiplication - grid method is most popular, I personally prefer Napiers. Some will attempt the column method, most will forget to add zeros when multiplying by the tens and hundreds.
Division - most will know the bus stop method, but I find a few insist they've never been taught it. They need to be taught it to be able to divide decimals effectively, so don't let them get away with chunking.

These two topics should be on your SOW fairly early on, I'd have thought.

"Getting to know" would be an ice-breaker type of thing to start. Introductions, and something personal about themselves (non-Maths related). I used to do this on placement, it worked well and I learned a lot about the students from their responses.

First up on the SoW is place value and rounding. Long multiplication and division will come up in the first half-term, but as part of a wider topic.

Good point about the children not knowing each other though. When I've done relay competitions in the past, the children have really enjoyed them and asked for more like that, but they were familiar with each other already. I wouldn't plan on anything too taxing, really I'm interested at the ways in which they add, subtract, multiply and divide. I've had a look at some KS2 papers already, so would base the levels on the content I've seen.

Good point about reading ability, thank you. Will aim for not too many words!

And thank you for reminding me about exercise books and the administration I need to do in the first lesson! Will check for SEN next week before we start.

Other things you might need to think about for the first lesson:

Is there a department/school policy on how they set out their work? They will need to be told this. If not, how do you want them to lay out their work? Title and date in a specific format? Underlined? Do they need to rule off the last piece of work? Do you want them to draw margins?
I make mine write questions down the page and never across, it's a pain in the arse for marking. Emphasise that working out is part of their solution and shouldn't be done secretly at the back of their book or on scrap paper, you don't only want to see the answers, or for them to waste time copying stuff up. Diagrams in pencil, writing should be in pen only (why? They ask, having been trained in primary to write in pencil and rub out mistakes. Because in GCSE you have to write in pen so you might as well start out now).
Check their equipment, what are your expectations?

Classroom organisation: how will you hand out and take in exercise books? Where will textbooks be stored, will they help themselves on the way in or will they be handed out as needed?

On teaching placements this sort of stuff will have already been established so you might not have considered it.

Y7 are quite needy. Expect questions of the type "I've come to the bottom of my page, what should I do?" Or "can I underline my title in gel pen?" in the first few lessons.

A note on icebreakers: they will probably have done a bunch of ice breaking stuff with their tutor groups, so keep it brief (if at all). Make sure you crack on with some maths in the first lesson.

God, place value and rounding is a terrible first topic. Dullsville, and the brighter kids will find it easy. Can you switch it for a different topic? (If formal assessment isn't till Christmas, then find out how important it is that topics are done in the exact order on the SOW).

I'm really grateful for all of these tips .

I'm pretty clear how I want work presented - date in the top left, topic and objective as headings, all underlined. Writing in pen, diagrams in pencil. Also want to establish what equipment should be brought to lessons - I got fed up of losing pens, pencils, rulers etc. on placement! Margin and questions down rather than across. All working out to be shown!

I'd forgotten about ruling the page after a piece of work.

Also need to check how many exercise books the students will have - whether a classwork book and a notebook, or separate books for classwork/homework etc.

I really like mini-whiteboards for whole class assessment, and although these aren't widely used at the school I might get them in for my classes. Students can collect them on the way into class and put them back on their way out.

What I am thinking about is a "no hands up for first 5 minutes" rule, when we move to textbook work, so that the children at least try the work before asking for help. In a previous placement, this was suggested as in some classes, the minute we moved to individual work a number of hands would go up straight away.

In a previous school where I worked they had a nice system where teachers marked in red and students marked/commented in green. Students were confident enough to write when they needed help and lacked confidence, and the teacher could see this and respond quickly.

Feeling a bit nervous now.... will be teaching 5 different year groups and I still don't have a copy of the SoW for Y10, due to new GCSE.

Top right for date...

If you are clear about how you want things to be done, then you will need to spell them out carefully to your classes, then reiterate them over subsequent lessons. Especially with Y7 the first few weeks are about training them to get them where you want them. You'll tell them you want diagrams in pencil. Then when you ask them to draw a diagram, pick a random kid to tell you what the rule is about drawing diagrams. Then pick another kid to make sure they were listening!

topic and objective as headings

Bear in mind what the PP said about reading ability. I wouldn't ask a bottom set to write that much unless it was something important, and then I would possibly scribe for some kids otherwise we'd be there all day. In a mixed ability class you may well have some students who would struggle with that. Is it that important that they copy the objective?

Objective was something I did in my last placement - along with the grade at GCSE, so for example:

Title: Fractions
LO: Addition and Subtraction (Grade E)

And to make sure it was on the board as the children entered. Most of them got into the habit of getting their books out and copying it once they had entered the classroom and got their equipment out (but not all).

I learned to make it as succinct as possible - I think if the heading and objective are there clear to see, it might be easier for the students to revise from? Not sure whether I want the grade there... it's all changing anyway.

Yes to Y7s being needy!

NobleGiraffe, what methods do your Y7s use to do subtraction? I was raised doing column subtraction, and whilst it's a method I understand, I found it was a bit of a nightmare to explain to dd (Y3). She tended to use place value and count on/count back - something I did with my Y11 bottom sets. So, for example, if I had 593 - 267, I'd ask the student to start at 593, then count back in 100's (twice), then count back in 10's (6 times), then finally count back 7. My Y11 preferred this method... but not sure how that would work with decimals?

Great advice, thank you CamelHump!

I was at a girls' grammar school when whiteboards were widely used and I never had any problems with rude drawings.... (that I knew of anyway!) so thanks for the tip.

When I was training last year, I really hated the time "wasted" through stuff like getting equipment out and putting it away, cutting up tarsias etc. I ended up doing stuff like cutting them up myself the night before to save all the faffing with scissors etc. I just felt as if time was running away with me. Would prefer not to be doing that this year as I suspect it's madness and not sustainable.... but the SoW looks so pressured.