Tutor Tuesday – Jet Lewin

Odd and Even Numbers 

Jet is a specialist teacher/assessor based in Harrow.  She originally trained as a primary school teacher, working as a maths subject lead, but at the moment is working with more secondary students and adults.

One of the things she notices that they all find difficult is judging whether an answer is right or wrong.  To support them in developing this skill, she has been encouraging them to think about whether their answers to calculations should be odd or even.

 Using numicon, they explore patterns with odd and even numbers.  Here are some photos a student took during a lesson with Jet  last week.

While they are working with the resources, she asks the students whether they can make any generalisations.  Are these rules that always work, or are any times that they don’t?  Would they still work with negative numbers, for example?  Can they come up with similar rules for multiplying and dividing?  Can they think how they could use Numicon to demonstrate these rules?

Working with manipulatives and taking photos to create a lasting image helps the work to stay in the students’ brains – but they will need to revisit it in different contexts to really embed their understanding. 

Jet’s next task is to think of a good game to support this learning!  Any ideas?!    

You can contact Jet here – 

https://www.jetlewin.com/