To see all of the work I do for TES Maths, including Resource of the Week, Inspect the Spec, Pedagogy Place, Maths Newsletters and Topic Collections, please visit the TES Maths Blog here

What is it?
If I were ever to be given the power to Knight someone (unlikely, I know) first on my list would be Andy Lutwyche for “Services to Maths Education”. Andy’s resources over the years have saved me (and 1000s of other teachers) countless hours and led to some of my favourite classroom experiences with my students. From Clumsy Clive to Crack the Safe, via What was the question? And may other collections of quality resources along the way.

And now Andy is back with a brand new resource type – Building Blocks. The idea is simple: students are given an example of every type of question they could be asked on a given topic, from easiest to hardest, presented as blocks on top of each other.

How can it be used?
This is an ideal end of topic / revision activity. Students have studied sets and Venn Diagrams, and now comes the opportunity to see what they really know. How high up the set of block can they go? Which question did they find most difficult? The choice of questions is excellent.

It could also be used as a homework or even an end of topic assessment. Students could be challenged to create their own to see if they have an appreciation of the full domain of what they have studied. A full set of Building Blocks activities could be bundled together to provide a comprehensive GCSE revision resource.

The idea may be simple, but the potential is great..

Thanks for sharing!
Craig Barton

Download: Sets and Venn Diagrams
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