T1W3 (Sec 3E E Math SRP - Module 1: Algebraic Manipulations)

I had the first session of E Math SRP with the Sec 3E on Monday, 19 Jan 09. The group that I am taking are pupils scoring E8 or F9 in their 2008 Sec 2E Math SA2. It was a fruitful session as pupils in these group were very motivated to do the worksheet created.

These pupils are not extremely weak in Algebra. I feel that the Sec 2E Math teachers had done a good job by giving these kids a good start in learning Algebra. What constitutes to their poor results could be due to carelessness or not simplifying expressions to the simplest form or maybe not enough one-to-one attention given to them to address their misconceptions.

Some observations I have made:
1) quite a no of them were very careless especially when they multiply by negative numbers. A number did not simplify further after expansions;
2) all of them were able to use the "smiling face" method to do expansion and a few of them were able to use the algebraic identities to expand terms in the form (a+b)^2, etc.;
3) some got confused when it came to expansion of 2 algebraic expressions which contained more than 2 terms.

Actions I had taken:
1) as the class was quite small, I could go to every one of them to give them feedback on their working;
2) I went round one by one, checked some of their working and marked all the questions they had attempted and addressed mistakes that they made;
3) I praised them when they did correctly.

From the session, I feel that these kids want to learn and they want to do well in Math. What they are lacking in is personal attention in coaching them with the learning of Math. Some how, I feel that these batch of Sec 3E pupils, though weak and slower, have the potential to do well as they have very positive attitudes towards learning. Hence, I hope all teachers teaching them will help them to work towards maximising their potential and hopefully adding value to their learning.