Access to Mathematics

A complete course in mathematics for students developing their English language skills

Includes: Teacher book, 10 Student Books and Online Access

This aim of this course is to provide a complete course in mathematics up to the level of GCSE (16 years old) for students with English as an additional language. Students develop their skills in English through the medium of learning the mathematics.

It was first created for students arriving in the country with little or no English, who needed to demonstrate their mathematical skills, to gain entry to secondary schools.

With conventional materials, students with limited English language skills struggled to show the strength of their mathematical skills and would often be denied entry to some schools or placed in lower achieving sets where the level of their mathematics was not recognised. It is nonetheless necessary to develop technical language skills in order to become prepared for the exams.

Hence, the course aims to develop the technical language associated with mathematics and maths exams as the student learns the maths.

The overall structure consists of a pre-test with very restricted (almost no) language, designed to identify the maths skills which are known and those that need to be developed. The activities are designed with only specific technical vocabulary and repetitive use of instructional text, to facilitate easy of entry to the mathematics, whilst developing the key vocabulary.

Many of the activities are supported by computer based interactive, using dynamic geometry software or spreadsheet based activities, which are available on a special website available only to users of the course. Finally, there is post-test which can be used to identify any items that need additional work, but mostly to provide evidence of achievement. 

Contents

• Operating the course 
• Mathematical Content of the Course 
• Course Content and Activity Numbering 
• Access to Mathematics Tracking Sheet 
• Access to Mathematics: Mathematics Test 1 (Pre-test) 

Student Activities and Support:

• Help Sheets
• Calculations activities 
• Numbers and the number system activities
• Equations, formulae and identities activities 
• Sequences, functions and graphs activities 
• Geometrical reasoning activities 
• Transformations and coordinates activities 
• Measures and construction activities 
• Probability activities 
• Statistics activities 
• Skills activities