In the Classroom
Classe
How we structure lessons, what a typical mathematics classroom looks like, and the principles that inform our daily teaching.
Lesson structure
Most lessons follow a consistent rhythm, though the balance between phases shifts depending on where we are in a unit.
A retrieval or warm-up problem from a previous unit or earlier in the course. 5–10 minutes. The purpose is spaced practice, not new learning.
The main body of the lesson. May involve teacher explanation, class discussion, investigation tasks, collaborative problem-solving, or worked examples depending on the stage of the unit.
Independent or paired practice. Students work through problems of increasing difficulty, applying the technique or concept from the core work.
A brief check — a question, an exit problem, or a discussion of common errors encountered in that lesson. Used to inform what needs revisiting next time.
Collaborative approaches
We use collaborative approaches — group tasks, partner problem-solving, class discussion — regularly, especially during the investigation and consolidation phases of a unit. This is not about lowering standards: research consistently shows that explaining your thinking to another person is one of the most effective ways of deepening understanding.
Collaborative tasks are designed so that each student must contribute their own reasoning, not copy from a partner. Criterion B (Investigating Patterns) and Criterion D (Real-Life Contexts) are particularly well suited to collaborative exploration.
What we mean by "understanding"
We want students to understand mathematics, not just perform it. This means being able to explain why a method works, not just that it works. It means knowing when to use a technique and when not to. It means being able to check whether an answer is plausible.
Students who understand can transfer their knowledge to unfamiliar problems. Students who have memorised without understanding can only perform familiar procedures. The IB's MYP and DP assessments are deliberately designed to test understanding — they include unfamiliar contexts precisely so that memorised procedures are insufficient.
Feedback and marking
Formative feedback is given frequently and in varied forms — verbal during class, written on homework, through class discussion of common errors. Summative assessment tasks are returned with criterion-level feedback within two weeks of the submission deadline.
Students are expected to read and act on feedback, not just note their mark. Where a mark scheme is provided, students are expected to check their own work against it and identify where marks were lost.