Teach-Primary-Issue-19.3

teachwire.net/primary 21 Preparing for SATs doesn’t need to take over the whole of Year 6, says Sarah Farrell . Dipping in little and often is much easier to digest... A s the days slowly start getting warmer, the thoughts of many Year 6 teachers will be on one thing: the KS2 SATs. While we don’t want SATs to dominate our children’s last year of school, we do want them to feel prepared and to be as successful as they can. While it can be tempting to restrict a Year 6 timetable to be as SATs-focused as possible over the next few weeks, there are better ways to make sure both you and your class feel ready by the time May comes around. Practise Rather than packing your timetable with lots of extra full-length maths and reading lessons, consider shorter, sharper sessions. A ten-minute speed-reading practice or quick refresh on multiplying pairs of fractions is likely to be more effective than replacing an afternoon of wider curriculum lessons. You could also include activities such as online quizzes and games to keep it interesting and avoid too much repetitive written practice. Target Identify any whole-class, group or individual areas of weakness that your class may have and build in time to directly target them. If the majority of the class finds it tricky to calculate a fraction of an amount, for example, make that a part of the beginning of every maths lesson for a week. For small group or individual areas, providing some targeted questions as morning work can close gaps and help children to feel more confident. Model Modelling how to approach the papers is a great way to show children what to expect and how to avoid common pitfalls. For example, you might display a question from the reading test and model your thinking aloud like this: “The question says that I need to look at paragraph four, so I’m going to find paragraph four first of all. It then asks me to identify how Ben knew there was a dolphin nearby before he could see it, so I’m looking for clues in the text that might relate to his other senses or maybe to the water rippling. I’m then going to check that the evidence I’ve found is definitely in paragraph four, as that’s where I was told to look. It’s asked me for two examples, so I’m going to make sure I write two pieces of evidence down.” While this may seem like a lot, explaining your thinking helps children know how to approach similar questions. With maths questions, model underlining key information, drawing bar models or diagrams, or writing out the steps you’ll take when answering a reasoning question. Discuss When presented with a wordy problem with several large numbers, some children may panic and not try it at all, or just add all the numbers together and hope for the best. A great way to recap key facts and help children to develop their ability to answer tricky questions is to initially hide key information. For example, display a multi-step reasoning problem with the numbers covered. Ask children to discuss in pairs how they might approach the question, then share strategies together. As a class, agree on a set of steps that will be completed when the numbers are shown. When you have a plan, share the numbers and set the class off to complete the question. The benefit of this approach is that it slows children down a bit and encourages them to really think about what’s being asked in order to help them to select the right operations needed. Find Children love finding mistakes! Present them with some questions that you have completed badly and task the children with finding out what mistakes you have made. Try to use mistakes that your class commonly make themselves, as this is a great way to tackle persistent errors. You could then create a class list of common mistakes to prevent them frommaking them again when they next come to take a test. Remember: SATs are a whole-school responsibility. The tests cover content from the whole of Key Stage 2, so it is not solely down to you to get the children to achieve 100 per cent. Best of luck! TP Best PRACTICE www.teachwire.net | 21 “Children love finding mistakes! Show them questions you've completed badly” Sarah Farrell is a KS2 teacher in Bristol who makes and shares resources online. tinyurl.com/tp-SarahFarrell @SarahFarrellKS2 F EATURE S S A T S