Diagnosing dyscalculia is just the start. It is also necessary to identify the type of dyscalculia the student has got.

Research by the Dyscalculia Centre, which has been published in SEN Magazine, has shown that there are five different types of dyscalculia – although inevitably many young people suffer from a combination of the types listed below.

Type 1 dyscalculics report significant worries about maths.  As a result they feel themselves living in an alien world in which everyone else can grasp maths, but they can’t.  Self-doubt becomes so strong that it gets increasingly difficult to persuade the individual that with proper support they might well be able to undertake and understand mathematical calculations.

Type 2 dyscalculics also experience this deep concern but have found strategies for understanding and coping with basic maths – yet they feel that they don’t have the automatic grasp that others have and often take twice as much time (or more) to do a maths problem as a non-dyscalculic person.

Type 3 students have a profound difficulty in comprehending and dealing with the concept of time.  Sometimes this issue appears on its own, sometimes in combination with types 1 or 2 dyscalculia.  For such people time itself makes no sense and they are quite unable to estimate “five minutes” or any other time length while questions about timetables and the like are also quite meaningless.

Type 4 dyscalculics may not always be dyscalculic in the genetic sense, although they display many of the symptoms of dyscalculic people because they have short-term and long-term memory problems.  These students generally have a problem with all sequences – and this, of course, affects their ability to handle maths perhaps more than any other subject.

Type 5 dyscalculics tend not to see numbers as in any way related to the real world.  In one sense most of us have this problem; after all, what is “six”?   We know what six sheep are.  But “six” on its own is close to meaningless.   For such people, maths can be learned automatically, but when it gets to issues such as fractions, decimals, and percentages then life gets difficult.

Fortunately all these types of dyscalculics can be helped through different types of multi-sensory learning of maths, and this is the approach we have set out in our series: “Dyscalculia Activities”

Each volume contains a vast array of activities which a teacher or assistant teacher can undertake with a small group of students, and involves turning the abstract concepts of maths into physical experiences.  No special equipment is needed, apart from paper, scissors, small cards and some ludo type counters.  (We can supply the cards and counters if you don’t already have them).

Each printed volume is copiable, and so only one copy is needed per school.

There are details here including sample pages

If you have any enquiries please do call 01536 399 000 or email Tony@schools.co.uk

You can place orders on line (there is a link from each of the above resource pages) or you can go straight to the on-line shop here http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/index.php?cPath=29 You can also order by post and fax:

  • By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
  • By fax to 01536 399 012

 

How to help KS3 students grasp the three fundamentals of written English

Ask most people today what the three fundamentals of written English are and they will probably struggle to define them.

And yet if students can grasp that there are just three fundamentals then they can start to see that the written language has a unified logical base, rather than being an endless stream of rules and regulations.

The three fundamentals are defined in the volume “Grammar and Punctuation for Key Stage 3” as Word Classes (adverbs, prepositions, etc), Phrases, Clauses and Sentences, and finally Punctuation.

This 300 page copiable book works through these three fundamentals, in each case breaking them down into their constituent parts.

Thus there are ten sections relating to word classes, five relating to phrases, clauses, and sentences, and eight relating to punctuation.  Each section is itself subdivided into between five and ten sub-sections, making it easy to find rules and examples on any specific topic that is required.

As such the volume is designed as a comprehensive reference source to be used throughout Key Stage 3 but it may also be used with students at key stage 4 who need remedial work.

Throughout, the book includes authentic examples collected from a variety of written sources. Through this mechanism the volume pays particular attention to those areas with which authors of all ages tend to have difficulties and offers an abundance of examples of current usage highlighting these areas.

Such examples are then followed by suggested improvements and by explanations justifying those improvements. Finally the relevant principles are practised through activities designed for pupils.

Anna Nolan, the author of Grammar and Punctuation for Key Stage 3, has worked as a freelance consultant to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and as a teacher trainer with the Edexcel National Curriculum Services.

There is a sample chapter available on-line at http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/english/T1661.pdf

Cat No: 978 1 86083 594 0;  Publisher reference no: T1661emn

Prices

  • Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £34.95. plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD with school-wide rights: £34.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Both the Ring Binder and the CD £41.94 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the book…

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What is the most effective way of helping students to higher grades at GCSE German?

In learning any language students we all go through two phases.

The first involves becoming familiar with the basic grammar and vocabulary of the language that allows the individual to engage in simple written and verbal communication – enough to ask the way to the shops and understand the answer.

That type of communication is expanded and developed through bringing in new situations and speeding up the exchanges while still keeping the subject matter very much in the every day.

That is part one. The second part then makes a conceptual leap from that position – a leap which takes the students up to a completely different level.

By this second stage the awareness of many everyday phrases is embedded in the brain and can be heard, understood and answered without translation. The language is understood as language.

And here students make the leap from a pass at GCSE to a higher grade and prepare themselves for A level, should they wish to take it.

Deutscher Wiederholungskurs will help this type of candidate make these steps forward.  It provides material for revision for the GCSE speaking and writing tests and helps to bridge the gap between GCSE and A level.

The course is divided into 8 topics drawn from the GCSE syllabus, each containing the same tasks:

  • Oral questions to revise the topic briefly;
  • Suggestions for visual stimuli for further oral revision;
  • A passage of German entitled “Fritz erzählt” which contains gaps to fill in and practice for case endings, pronouns and verb endings;
  • Comprehension exercises on the passage to be answered in full German sentences;
  • A passage of English for translation into German; and a series of questions in German, the answers to which should form the basis for a short essay.  Finally there are a series of related role-play situations.

The book is fully photocopiable for ease of use in the classroom and will prove an invaluable source of revision and consolidation for your GCSE students.

Sample pages from the book, order code T1616emn,  can be found on http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/modlang/T1616.pdf

Prices

  • Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Both the Ring Binder and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Prices include VAT.

 You can purchase the report…

  • By post from First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct, Earlstrees Rd, Corby, NN17 4HH
  • By fax to 01536 399 012
  • On-line with a credit card at http://tinyurl.com/mw79zv
  • By phone with a school order number or a credit card to 01536 399 011

When ordering the book please quote the reference T1

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The Kaiserreich

This 150 page book will be invaluable to any student of the Second Reich at Advanced level. It provides a comprehensive, narrative chronological structure which is a prerequisite of any study of the period. Personalities and events are recounted in considerable detail and are clearly set in context.

However the book goes beyond most standard textbooks in the way it prepares students to produce competent essay responses to exam questions and provides practice in handling documentary sources.

  • Students are given key questions to consider and are encouraged to test continuously the theories of historians against their own findings.
  • Essay style questions are set at each stage in the book.
  • Documentary criticism skills are continuously tested.
  • Frequent historiographical references remind students to read beyond this text to gain a greater understanding of the subject.

What’s more, the materials are available as a photocopiable book and as a CD which can be put onto the school’s network and shared among all students for whom it is relevant.  Thus all students may use the material with the purchase of just one copy.

ISBN No: 978 1 86083 564 3 Order code: T1649EMN

Sample pages are available to download free of charge from http://pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/history/T1649.pdf

  • Photocopiable book: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD plus photocopiable book: £36.94 plus £3.95 delivery

You can order… Please quote the order code T1649EMN

  • By post: Write to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Rd., Corby, Northants NN17 4HH
  • By fax: To 01536 399 012
  • By phone: quoting a credit card number or a school order reference number: 01536 399 018
  • On line: Go to http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=473– you will need a credit card to complete the order

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