The Eleventh Republic - countdown to summer holidays

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Strawberryjam that's really alarming.
I think I'll spend my holidays making PPE!

I’m a school governor and our schools have mentioned an update on 11th August.

Looks like even The Mirror no longer supports teachers then:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/state-school-teachers-moonlighting-private-22303681

Why on earth is the Mirror gleefully reporting a Fail report anyway??

I think this is a problem for teachers : too posh and educated for The Mirror and The Sun and too dim, too bourgeois and too public sector for The Telegraph and The Times.

@Mistressiggi so my (limited!) understanding is that dyslexia reduces working memory which in turn causes problems with students remembering and recalling the ‘facts’ like times tables and number bonds. For division knowing the times tables facts, including divisions, makes it much easier as you are then purely focusing on the algorithm itself.

I try to use lots of manipulatives where I can to help students make sense of the numbers and patterns and so they can then use visual representations themselves to work out the facts when needed. Different students ‘see’ multiplication in different ways. I might start here and find the best way to represent/visually make jottings your find times tables facts if that makes sense.

When then doing division with them I would ask them to write out the times table of the divisor at the side (using their method to generate the times table) and then when they have the facts they need at the side do the algorithm if that makes sense?

I am no expert at all btw - but it reduces strain on the working memory a bit, allowing for the division algorithm to be focused on.

@ineedaholidaynow

I’m a school governor and our schools have mentioned an update on 11th August.

Phew! Felt like I was going mad for a moment 😂😂😂

Or we are the same school @MrsHerculePoirot

@ineedaholidaynow

Or we are the same school *@MrsHerculePoirot*

🤣 that would be funny! Outer London borough?

A quick search for '11 August schools guidance' only seems to turn up that that date is when Scottish schools go back.... are any if you north of the border?

For times tables maybe squeebles or something like that.

@MrsHerculePoirot not the same school and south west so definitely south of the border

Our Head is also saying that decisions won't be made until after 11th August? Again, no idea where this has come from.... (as also not in Scotland).
On a personal note, don't know how (if things are going to change after 11th August) I'm simultaneously meant to reconstruct the timetable to enable that and sort out A-Level and GCSE results... Will be a very stressful few weeks....

Thank you MrsP, his tutor said some dyslexics just never learn their tables so resigning myself to him just getting Nat 4 maths which would make uni really hard to access (but who needs a degree when you're going to be a YouTuber, right? )
Keepdistance I hadn't heard of Squeebles thank you for the tip.

@Piggywaspushed there will be a significant demand for tutoring next year. I tend to take 1 or 2 per year tops. They have to come to me. I turn everyone else away. I will be happy to do it on line going forward.

Hows his doubling? His 4s are double his 2s so if he knows his 2s and can double could be a way to approach it?

Otherwise lots of repetition, maybe make it active if that's something he likes. Jumping on answers or running to find the answer?

I am also outer London borough and been told 11 Aug for an announcement .

If it’s not too patronising can you give him eg 20 sweets to share into piles and discover it can be done equally into 10, 5, 4 and 2 piles? I think some dyslexics like to see things physically and can then visualise that for mentally. You could also revisit factors-which in my mind is a building block (common factors necessary for fractions too). Also very practical applications like if he had £21pw how much could he spend per day. Or if Man U scored 9 goals over 3 matches...

Ds also epic at football facts (fifa and some other thing on his phone where you open packs) thanks to that he knows the flag for pretty much every country in the world lol. Find a way to capitalise on the football confidence and interest?

I’ve been putting off opening my work laptop since those guidelines were released but I’m going into school tomorrow so better bite the bullet.

Aw thanks @eitak22 and @TheHoneyBadger I really appreciate it. The sweet idea - yes! He would eat them before I could finish probably But that could be an incentive. I really didn't know till lockdown how far behind he was and how lacking in motivation sadly.

MrsH is absolutely right about tables and division and dyslexia. There's lots of different types of dyslexia or rather it affects different people in different ways.

Working memory can be a significant issue.

I was told years ago about a book about a pirate and learning tables or facts linked in trios as being helpful generally for tables. I do suspect I have dyslexic tendencies and certainly things like tables were hard for me. I have a very visual memory though. I taught my self clunky ways.

If I'm honest I think the numeracy strategy approach to multiplication and division was better for children with number difficulties, the current plans do a different approach which I don't think makes as much sense if you need visual images and physical objects when learning.

The biggest issue with multiplication and division is the language and understanding the processes behind both operations.

MrsH is absolutely right about tables and division and dyslexia. There's lots of different types of dyslexia or rather it affects different people in different ways.

Working memory can be a significant issue.

I was told years ago about a book about a pirate and learning tables or facts linked in trios as being helpful generally for tables. I do suspect I have dyslexic tendencies and certainly things like tables were hard for me. I have a very visual memory though. I taught my self clunky ways.

If I'm honest I think the numeracy strategy approach to multiplication and division was better for children with number difficulties, the current plans do a different approach which I don't think makes as much sense if you need visual images and physical objects when learning.

The biggest issue with multiplication and division is the language and understanding the processes behind both operations.

MrsH is absolutely right about tables and division and dyslexia. There's lots of different types of dyslexia or rather it affects different people in different ways.

Working memory can be a significant issue.

I was told years ago about a book about a pirate and learning tables or facts linked in trios as being helpful generally for tables. I do suspect I have dyslexic tendencies and certainly things like tables were hard for me. I have a very visual memory though. I taught my self clunky ways.

If I'm honest I think the numeracy strategy approach to multiplication and division was better for children with number difficulties, the current plans do a different approach which I don't think makes as much sense if you need visual images and physical objects when learning.

The biggest issue with multiplication and division is the language and understanding the processes behind both operations.

Oops x3 copies...

I think there's a domino type game you can get of those??

I did the old numeracy strategy 5 day division course which was exactly for children like you're Mis. for me times tables lists never made any sense at all, I could do 2s 5s and tens, 11s, and had to do crazy mental maths to work out anything else.

The basic premis there was that if multiplication is introduced as repeated adding, divisions is introduced as repeated subtracting, and it was all heavily reliant on number lines.

The issue is that they (correctly according the the rules of the operations) stated that therefore 3x4 was actually 3 added 4 times. Not 3 lots of 4, which is how this now taught.

Eg x5. You know how many wines that is:

So turn the into a number and it works in the same way. 4x5 = 4 4 4 4 4

So then 20 divided into chunks of 4 was 20-4-4 etc. But they worked on the early facts of 10, 5 and 2 and as soon as you learn your facts you know there's 5 chunks of 4 in 20. We did loads of just counting in steps of 3 and 4 etc. And then you learned how multiplication was commutable and so on.

They avoided long written methods as they felt children didn't understand what was going on (me.) the number line approach helped them visualise the steps and how many.

For me though, number facts and mentally linking those numbers together are really helpful.

My dyslexic DD learned her tables all of a sudden, in year 5. She made a multiplication grid, filled in all the ones she knew, and learned the rest one per day. She still has a few she forgets but ‘knows’ that she forgets those ones so makes more effort to remember.