Confidence Checklistfor Personal Maths Skills at Level 2

Level 2 maths

Confidence checklistfor personal maths skills at Level 2

Note that this self-assessment is entirely for your personal use to inform your choice of modules and units to tackle in this course. It is not part of any external assessment and need not be disclosed to anyone unless you are seeking further support for your maths skills and teaching and wish to use it to pinpoint areas for development. It would be useful to revisit it at the end of the course to assess your progress.

Confidence indicator

Use this confidence indicator to self-assess your level of confidence in maths at Level 2. Note that Level 2 includes GCSE mathematics as well as Level 2 Functional Skills. The maths skills listed here cover most, but not all, aspects of maths at Level 2. For further details about curriculum content, contact a maths expert teacher in your organisation.

The curriculum description in the chart below is based on aspects of the most recent version of GCSE subject content (from September 2015) and some elements of the Level 3 Award in mathematics for numeracy teaching. (Note that this links to the City & Guilds site and that C&G are not the only awarding organisation offering this qualification.)

How to use the confidence indicator

Look carefully through the curriculum descriptions in the chart and consider each statement. The statements cover both your own personal level of skills and your confidence in teaching those skills to your learners. Record your level of confidence using the key below.
Make a note of any specific issues. Make any personal reflections in the final box.
Each curriculum description matches to a learning unit in this program. If you have identified that your confidence level is at 2 or 3, then you will benefit from tackling the relevant units. Don’t forget to look at the introduction unit at the beginning of each module and the ‘Marking learners’ work’ unit at the end of the module.
If, after completing your selected units, you feel you need further consolidation, then you may benefit from further work on maths orperhaps studying for the revised GCSE course. You may need advice about how best to proceed – this could be obtained from various sources such as amaths expert teacher in your organisation, from NCETM, or one of the regional maths specialists based at Centres of Excellence in Teacher Training: In addition, the ETF maths Exhibition site contains a wealth of further links to development resources

You can use the confidence indicator again at the end of your visit to this resource, to self-assess your progress and indicate any aspects of maths where your confidence levels are not yet high. You could also try theMaths Self-Evaluation Tool on the Foundation Online Learning environment.

Key

1 = Confident

2 = Fairly confident but need more practice

3 = Not confident and probably need lots of work

Please tick the most appropriate box.

Curriculum description / 1 / 2 / 3 / Your comments
Module 1: Number
Can you…?
Understand a range of mathematical terminology

Explain maths terminology to learners.
Identify the maths terminology involved in everyday and work tasks.
Know methods and resources for teachingmaths terminology.

Understand place value

Explain place value to learners.
Identify the place value involved in everyday and work tasks.
Know different strategies and activities for supporting learners with understanding place value, including using decimals to represent parts of numbers.
Analyse common errors that some learners make in this area.

Calculate with fractions and decimals

Use different methods for finding fraction-decimal equivalences.
Use fraction equivalences to compare the relative size of two fractions.
Analyse common learner errors.
Know teaching strategies to support learners.

Convert between percentages and fractions

Know how to convert between fractions and percentages.
Analyse learner errors when they calculate percentage change.
Know teaching strategies and approaches in relation to percentages.

Calculate simple and compound interest

Identify common errors in simple interest calculations.
Work out the formula for compound interest and apply it in order to solve interest problems.
Know teaching strategies that can be used to support learners.

Solve problems involving ratio and proportion

Know the difference between ratio and proportion and the learner misconceptions that can occur.
Convert between units of measure, and consider some different strategies for supporting learners with such questions.
Identify where ratio is used in vocational and other contexts.
Know some approaches to teaching and supporting learning in this area.

Understand and calculate proportional change

Understand the effect of proportional increase in the dimensions of shapes.
Explain proportional change to learners.
Spot errors in reasoning made by learners in ratio and proportion questions.

Standard form

Know the laws of indices (for example how to work out 3.48 x 3.4-6).
Write very small and very large numbers using standard index form notation, and vice versa.
Spot common learner errors.

Curriculum description / 1 / 2 / 3 / Your comments
Module 2: Algebra
Can you…?
Understand the language of algebra and use algebraic notation

Explain why algebraic notation is used.
Write algebraic expressions concisely and elegantly.
Recognise real-life situations where equations are used.
Support learners to become confident in writing algebraic equations to represent problems stated in words.

Substitute numbers intoformulae and expressions

Find the value of algebraic expressions by substituting numbers for the unknowns.
Evaluate formulas to solve problems.
Identify common errors made by learners when substituting values into equations and formulas.
Support learners to practise their substitution skills.

Simplify algebraic expressions

Collect like terms.
Multiply a single term over a bracket.
Multiply out pairs of brackets.
Take out common factors.

Solve linear equations

Recognise linear equations.
Solve linear equations algebraically.
Form and solve a linear equation from a problem stated in words.
Support learners to become confident in recognising, forming and solving linear equations.

Solve quadratic equations

Recognise quadratic equations.
Solve quadratic equations by factorising.
Use completed square form to solve quadratic equations.
Use a formula to solve quadratic equations.
Choose the most appropriate method to solve quadratic equations.
Spot common errors made by learners and help them.

Plot graphs

Plot coordinates on a grid.
Draw graphs of linear and quadratic equations.
Use the graphs of linear and quadratic equations to find solutions.
Spot common mistakes learners make when drawing axes and plotting graphs.
Interpret real-life scenarios represented by graphs.
Support learners to become more confident in drawing and interpreting graphs.

Curriculum description / 1 / 2 / 3 / Your comments
Module 3: Measures
Can you…?
Interpret scale drawings and maps

Use a ruler and a protractor to measure accurately.
Use the points of the compass.
Work out the three-figure bearing of one point on a map from another point.
Interpret scale drawings and maps.
Spot areas of difficulty for learners.

Area and volume

Know and use the formulae for areas of common shapes.
Describe and apply formulae for the volumes of prisms.
Spot areas of difficulty for learners.

Use a range of formulae

Know those formulae that need to be learned for GCSE and those that do not.
Explain formulae for the circumference and area of a circle.
Support learners to remember these formulae.

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Curriculum description / 1 / 2 / 3 / Your comments
Module 4: Geometry and trigonometry
Can you…?
Properties of circles and other shapes

Identify and apply circle definitions.
Use circle definitions to make conjectures about angles drawn in circles.
Identify properties of solids.
Support learners to develop the language used to describe geometrical features.

Properties of angles

Calculate missing angles formed by drawing a straight line through a pair of parallel lines.
Use the terms alternate, corresponding and vertically opposite to describe particular angles.
Calculate the sum of the interior angles of any polygon.
Support learners to understand the properties of angles.
Spot the errors made by learners and develop strategies to help them.

Congruence and similarity of shapes

Identify congruent shapes.
Identify similar shapes.
Identify what is the same and what is different about pairs of similar triangles.
Use similar triangles to find missing angles.

Transformations of geometric figures: rotation, reflection, translation and enlargement

Describe fully transformations of plane (2-dimensional) shapes on a grid.
Support your learners to understand transformations.

Trigonometry

Understand how the ratio of the lengths of the sides in a right-angled triangle is related to the angles.
Use Pythagoras’ theorem to solve problems.
Use trigonometry to solve problems in a variety of contexts.

Solve geometry problems

Use the drawing of a diagram to help identify the geometry skills needed to solve problems.
Use geometry skills and concepts to solve problems.
Support learners to tackle problems with confidence.

Curriculum description / 1 / 2 / 3 / Your comments
Module 5: Probability
Can you…?
Record and analyse probability

Explain the language of probability theory.
Describe how frequency trees can lead to probability estimates.
Make predictions about future events based on relative frequencies.
Explain how relative frequency can be used in real-life situations.
Spot the errors learners may make in calculating and estimating probabilities.

Combining probabilities

Explain the terms ‘mutually exclusive’ and ‘independent’ and use your understanding of these terms to calculate probabilities.
Explain how to use tree diagrams to solve probability problems involving more than one event.
Spot the difficulties learners may have when calculating probabilities.

Curriculum description / 1 / 2 / 3 / Your comments
Module 6: Statistics
Can you…?
Interpret discrete and continuous data

Identify whether data is discrete or continuous.
Construct and interpret cumulative frequency graphs.
Construct histograms and know the difference between a histogram and a bar chart.

Interpret univariate data (where there is only one variable)

Estimate measures of central tendency and spread for grouped data and interpret these statistics in the context of the original data set.
Draw and interpret box and whisker diagrams (box plots).
Select appropriate statistical diagrams to create the best visual display of the data.
Spot the mistakes and misconceptions your learners might make or have.

Interpret bivariate data (where there are two or more variables)

Use and interpret scatter diagrams of bivariate data.
Recognise correlation and know that it does not indicate causation.
Recognise lines of best fit and use them to make predictions.
Understand and use the terms ‘interpolate’ and ‘extrapolate’.
Recognise the limitations of correlation and lines of best fit for making predictions.
Understand the particular issues learners have with this area of statistics.

Any general comments or personal reflections