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 get the kids to pass their worksheet/exercise book to the end of an aisle (I have two aisles) then one kid from each aisle sweeps from back to front picking up the stuff and then deposits the lot on my desk. :) You definitely need a system that you practise.

Subtraction - column method. Borrowing across more than one number is where they fall down. But the students who make mistakes with the column method would probably make mistakes with a counting back method too.

So in terms of seating, would you recommend rows versus groups?

I had originally thought groups of four, but perhaps everyone facing forward with the opportunity to move into groups might work better.

I have rows. Bloody hate groups, the kids all look at each other and distract each other. I find it much more difficult for behaviour management.

The problem with groups of 4 is that you either have kids who are facing away from you or have to swing around to see the board, which is a pain in the arse.

That said, a couple of teachers in my department have seating in groups and like it. I guess it depends on your style of teaching, I hate group work too.

All of my PGCE learning screams groups . I prefer everyone facing forward, possibly seated in pairs, rather than long rows across. Then if they needed to work in groups, they could just join up with the table behind them.

I don't mind group work, but I tend to dictate who is in which group. Some of the most inspiring and imaginative work from my students came from small group projects .

I've tried groups and rows, rows are much easier for behaviour management, they can't distract each other so easily and they can all see the board (and I can see them). I don't do groupwork very often either, although I do more than some of my colleagues.

I agree with the others that you need to spend time training them in your routines in the first few weeks. I tend to have a problem on the board for them to attempt as they arrive, so they aren't wasting time waiting for everyone to get there but I know some schools make them line up outside the room and come in together, so find out what the whole school/department norms are so you can toe the same line with the kids. I also put the right number of textbooks/worksheets on the end of each row then they pass them along. Then when we collect them they pass books to the end of the row and that person puts them away.