Today I observed Connor's year 5 maths session, where they went through and learnt the order of operations, also known as BODMAS. Connor was able to easily explain and guide his student to her own well-rounded understanding of the concept.
Connor’s teaching style allowed the student to be easily guided while still reaching the answers independently, allowing her to build confidence in the topic. This was evident throughout the session when the student began asking to do the questions independently without any assistance. The display of growth and learning throughout one session alone showed how effective Connor's approach was to build the student’s understanding and confidence.
They also incorporated the student’s understanding of negative integers to further her understanding of the order of operations. By incorporating other topics that the student has already learnt does three important things. It helps further develop the student's confidence, as she was already familiar and comfortable with part of the work then the more challenging and new part of the content feels more approachable for the student. It also reinforces the understanding of negative integers, reminding the student of a concept that she already knows, thus putting it into long term memory and strengthen the connections with in her brain. Finally, incorporating another concept and linking them together adds an extra layer to the topic, making it more challenging.
Connor would easily and efficiently redirect the student back on track if she was getting confused or wasn't fully understanding, and he was able to explain and answer her questions with clarity. He also showed her more efficient ways to get the same correct answers to allow her to understand the most efficient ways to approach each question. Connor's teaching style allowed his student to effectively learn and understand the order of operation and work independently by the end of the lesson with increased confidence surrounding this topic.
