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Framework for teaching mathematics

Out-of-class work and homework

Your daily mathematics lessons provide opportunities for children to practise and consolidate their skills and knowledge, to develop and extend their techniques and strategies, and to prepare for their future learning. You can extend these opportunities through out-of-class activities or homework.

Not all out-of-class work needs to be written work which then has to be marked. You can equally well ask your class to:

• do an activity which makes use of the home context, such as tipping out a purse and counting what is in it, or weighing things on the kitchen or bathroom scales;
• play a number game or work on a number puzzle;
• learn some number facts or multiplication tables by heart;
• gather information to use in the next lesson: for example, collect data or take measurements;
• think about how they might solve a problem;
• prepare their contribution to a group presentation to the class.

For older children, work outside the normal lesson can be completing a short written exercise or task which consolidates and develops from work done in class, with modifications of the presentation for any children who need them (see question 2 in 'School and class organisation: some questions answered'). You then need to mark the work promptly and thoroughly so you can give children some feedback on their progress. For example, an exercise at the end of a unit of work, or a few days after it, and which pupils do independently, can give you useful diagnostic information on who has learned what and who needs extra support. Sometimes you might set a quiz with a mix of short questions which you expect children to do quickly and successfully. At the start of the next lesson you can read out answers and children can mark their own work. You should then go through any questions that proved to be difficult.

Out-of-class activities need to be frequent, short and focused. They should be varied, interesting and fun so that they motivate children, stimulate their learning and foster different study skills.

But whatever work you set, you should give children feedback to show them that their work is important and their efforts are valued. You should also indicate whether and how their work might be improved. For example, you might discuss a problem briefly in the plenary part of a lesson and ask the children to tackle it in preparation for the next lesson. This could start with sharing and refining methods and solutions, which are then used to inform the main teaching activity, when you give similar or linked problems to each group. Or you could use the plenary to introduce a game which helps children to practise the recall of number facts and which they can play with their families or friends. In the mental and oral work at the start of the next lesson you could focus on the recall of these facts, so that you can see through your interactions with the children which of them have good recall and which need some additional support.