After completing I See Problem-Solving – UKS2, I spent some time before Christmas extending my free resources for Early Number Sense and creating some free resources for visualising multiplication. Now it’s time for the next big project – writing I See Problem-Solving – LKS2 and I See Problem-Solving – KS1!
I’ve decided to write both resources simultaneously. Trialling the tasks takes so long, I thought was better to get going on both resources now. This will mean I can keep sending out sample resources to be trialled, keep making improvements to both and hopefully, overall, complete the I See Problem-Solving trilogy sooner! So far I have come up with loads of draft ideas for both resources in each curriculum area:
Soon I will start creating the tasks themselves. I’m going to start with tasks in addition and subtraction, multiplication and fractions. The idea is that the pre-task steps will help children to learn the sub-skills for answering the main task, making the activities accessible for all. Then there will be reasoning tasks and extensions for deepening learning. Expect lots of visual, thought-provoking mathematics!
Example tasks will be sent for trialling to people on my trial resources list for KS1 and LKS2: expect the first email mid-February. It helps so much when people tell me what they like about the sample tasks and what can be improved. I’m still very busy with my teaching and training commitments, so if I’m a bit delayed that’s why!
Once all the trialling is done, hopefully the finished product will help teachers to do something that I always found hard: systematically teach problem-solving skills to children. I’m mega-excited about what can be achieved.
I See Reasoning – KS1 and I See Reasoning – LKS2 are designed to help teachers build reasoning into daily maths lessons.
Gareth Metcalfe Primary Maths 