Using videos to support Higher Maths pupils

Overview
John Sexton teaches at James Young High School in Livingston, West Lothian. Having successfully used Glow with his S4 Maths class last session, he was eager to continue to provide support in a similar way for his Higher Maths class this year. He therefore created a Higher Maths Glow Group for this purpose

Context
In S4, John Sexton’s pupils had enjoyed use of a Glow Group which enabled them to access learning and teaching resources and most crucially, have a forum where they could ask both the teacher and one another for support through use of a Discussion board. (see the Peer Support in Maths cookbook for further details)

John wanted to build upon this and find a way of supporting his Higher Maths candidates throughout their demanding, fast-paced course. He particularly wanted to be able to give them a support mechanism for when they are studying at home – both for him to support them and for the pupils to provide peer support for one another. As the course requires a large commitment in terms of both time and effort, John wanted to try to enable pupils to make best use of their limited time.

One of the most successful aspects of John’s S4 Glow Group was the Discussion Board that pupils used for Homework help. This help was given by both John and the pupils themselves. Feedback from the S4 pupils showed that they had really valued this and so John included a Discussion Board within the Higher Maths Glow Group, to continue it.

However, John was keen to find other ways to help pupils understand some of the aspects of the course that they found most difficult. He decided to create little video clips of worked examples that he talked through as if he were teaching the pupils directly.

It is these videos that we will focus on in this cookbook.

Higher Maths Support Videos
John has created videos to support all aspects of the Higher Maths course. These are accessed on the Lesson Archive page of the Glow Group.

Pupils can click on the link to the topic that they want support in and this then opens up a simple web page that John has created to host the videos.

Let’s look at one of these videos to understand the type of support that they provide for pupils:

Video – Calculating the mid-point of a line (1:40)

These videos give so much more than could be achieved by a simple text-based support tool, such as a text book or a worked example in a jotter. Pupils are able to hear John explaining the steps of a calculation and he can make points that would be difficult to do in a written format. He can emphasise important points, expand on areas that he knows the pupils may have problems with, give hints and tips and make reference to previous knowledge or to things he’s covered in class.

Pupils can then watch these videos when doing homework or revising. They can be used by pupils to go over concepts they have found challenging, as they have the ability to pause and reflect on what is being shown, so enabling them to work and gain understanding, at a pace appropriate to them. This can be particularly helpful to pupils who lack confidence as they have a way of getting support from the teacher, without the teacher being there. The videos can, of course, also be used by pupils who have missed a lesson. Again, this form of catch-up is far more beneficial than simply copying someone else’s notes from the lesson they missed or reading examples in a text book.

Ingredients
What did John Sexton need to do to create the videos and give pupils access to them?
• A Glow Group at school level
• Use software to create the videos (John chose the free ‘Jing’)
• Create a basic web page
• Add content to the web page – including links to the saved videos
• Request web hosting space from the Local Authority ASM
• Upload the web pages and their content to Glow via web hosting
• Put links into the Glow Group to the uploaded web pages.

This process, it has to be said, uses one of the more advanced elements of Glow, and whilst John would not declare himself to be a ‘techie’, he does have a certain confidence around the use of ICT. There are other ways to do what John has done, but we will concentrate on replicating his process.

In the following videos, we will find out:

• What the Higher Maths Glow Group looks like
• How to create a basic web page (this is not part of Glow)
• How to add content to the web page – including links to the saved videos
• How to request web hosting space from the Local Authority ASM
• How to upload the web pages and their content to Glow via web hosting
• How to put links into the Glow Group to the uploaded web pages.

What does the Higher Maths Group look like? (5:07)

How to request web hosting space 7:23

How to create a basic web page, add video links and upload it to web hosting (14:24)

Impact

Whilst it has taken John a fair amount of time to create the videos and make them accessible to pupils, he feels that the time and effort spent now will reap far greater rewards in the longer term, as they will be available – and relevant – for years to come, benefitting not only this year’s Higher candidates, but future ones too. John’s preparation and planning time should also be reduced because of this.

John has found it interesting that the Homework Help discussion forum has not been used as extensively as it was last year. He puts this down to the time demands of the course, combined with the pupils studying for an array of other Higher subjects too. Interestingly, pupils have been more inclined to email John directly for support, which he has of course been happy to give. There has also been more use made of Glow Chat this year for both homework help and revision, which may have lessened the need to use the Discussion Board. That said, there was a flurry of activity on the Discussion Board immediately prior to the prelim exam!

Despite lesser use of the Discussion Boards though, pupils have been using mathematical language better and more confidently. It appears that even their limited interactions here have been having a positive impact.

John has been able to use the posts on the Discussion Board as a means of formative assessment too, since seeing the topics that pupils have been requesting help for have allowed him to assess which areas of the course perhaps need more revision – either with the whole class or with individual pupils.

Another interesting observation from John, is that in a class made up of both S5 and S6 pupils, the S6 pupils have engaged most with the Glow Group. They have said that they particularly like the videos and find these extremely useful.

Overall, pupil response to the Group and in particular to the support videos, has been extremely positive.