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

What is it?
I often worry about the effectiveness of so-called Intervention in the build up to GCSE. This usually comprises of taking students out of tutor time, or even other subjects, to work in small groups or one-to-one with a teacher or teaching assistant. This is fine, and there is no doubt that any extra help can only be of benefit, but how do we know how effective the intervention has been? This is where this lovely resource, specially on Representing Data, comes into play. Not only does it provide material to use in the intervention session itself (no more frantically searching through textbooks or past papers fro appropriate questions), but also an objective way to measure how successful the intervention has been.

How can it be used?
There are three parts to this resource, but I am going to make a case for a fourth!
1. There is a pre-test, which is ideal for deciding which students would benefit for the topic-specific intervention. This could be given as a quick in-class assessment, and even marked by the students themselves.
2. Then there is the Intervention Booklet, rammed full of top-quality questions perfectly aligned to the new Maths GCSE. This could be used in the intervention sessions themselves, or taken by the student to complete at home.
3. Finally, there is the post-test to see how much progress the student has made as a result of the intervention. This is a simple, but effective model.
4. My only addition would be a second post-test to be given to the student around three weeks later. This would then enable you as a teacher to see which concepts have truly stuck, as opposed to simply dangling in the student’s short-term memory immediately following the intervention sessions. Such a test could easily be created by manipulating the numbers in the existing post test.

Thanks so much for sharing
Craig Barton

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