Braintastic Maths Skills KS1

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KS1 (Years 1 - 2)

Mathematics

used with headphones

used by individuals

used for revision purposes

I used the title as an activity for those children who completed their work early. The title helped to reinforce work that had been undertaken in group activity time. As I was unable to load the program onto our school network it was loaded onto a laptop and used by individual children or in pairs using a splitter for headphones. I am confident that it could also be used on a whole class basis on a whiteboard when all the children could enjoy the activities.

In future numeracy lessons I will work to ensure that all children have an opportunity to participate in using this program although as only one laptop was available to run this program this will take longer than the evaluation period allows.

It was obvious that using the title with a pair of children clearly supported their learning. As they were able to discuss their learning as they progressed this enabled them to talk through any methods of working out problems that they had. The use of talking partners is widely used in the school and it was evident from this activity that its benefits are transferable and the children are able to apply them in different situations regardless of whether they have been asked to or not.

I found that it was essential that I preloaded the title so that I could chose which activities the children were going to work on. This is easily achieved using the curriculum map that is held on the CD-ROM.

Although the program does not have sound when working through the activities I did ask the children to wear headphones. This provides them with the opportunity to avoid the background noise that is present in the classroom and to block out the title's sound from the classroom when it is used.

The activities that the children were asked to complete were directly related to the lesson's focus. This enabled the children to talk about what they had found from the title and to ensure that they remained focussed on their work. Using the teacher selection page on the program helped to ensure that this was possible. The children did find that having to select the next question by clicking on the icon was something that they did not usually have to do. They are used to be led through to the next question when they have answered the question. This did not cause undue problems but was something that had to be explained as there was no sound to remind them to do this or a flashing icon to lead them to the icon.

easy to use independently

logical progression of content

search facilities operate logically

users place can be recorded to enable restart where they left off

The pupils were easily able to navigate through the program and to arrive at the prize page and enjoy their reward! All the children were able to work through the questions but I found that those children with a higher reading age were better placed to understand what was required. I could not find an icon that would enable me to turn on the sound for those children who require instructions verbally.

The program holds the place that the child has reached by displaying how many questions they have completed. This allows the individual to return to their activity and complete it without having to start again. In Key Stage 1 this is invaluable and the children enjoyed being able to complete their activities easily.

The search facilities to support the teacher in finding the appropiate activities worked quickly and easily. This helps to provide suitable activities and they were quickly selected and then available for use.

The children use ICT frequently and are proficient in its use. This is very fortunate as it means that they are capable of using many programs quickly. ICT features across the curriculum and they have access to software that support their numeracy development. Therefore little preparatory work was needed to familiarise the children with the title and how to navigate through it. I introduced it to the whole class by telling them that I was 'road testing' a new title and that some children would be able to have a go and report back to me on what they though. My idea was that after several had worked through it it would be possible to have a forum and tell the class what had been discovered about the title.

The key teaching and learning objectives were those used in the main activity in the numeracy lesson. This helped to ensure that the activitiy being undertaken using the title would dovetail into the lesson seamlessly. Having viewed the actities that the children were going to undertake it was possible during the plenary lesson to ask appropriate questions to the whole class to assess their level of understanding. This meant that those children using the title were able to answer using their understanding from the ICT work and those who had not used ICT were able to answer from their work in the main activity.

The use of the Braintastic Maths and the Scope and Sequence documents held on the CD-ROM provide very clear information that will support the progression that children make when using this title. It is easy when using these documents to be able to accurately place a child when using the program and through this to challenge whilst supporting. The content module information shown on the Scope and Sequence document does not list the various years applicable to the National Curriculum for England and Wales but it is easy to track through and locate a suitable level. The Braintastic Maths document is correlated with the UK Revised Numeracy Strategy and clearly shows the core learning applicable listed by years.

The assessment data that is held for each individual and which can be exported to another program is clear and easy to follow. It lists the levels that have been worked at for each individual and which questions they have attempted. As each child can have three goes at a question it shows which attempt they answered at. It is easy to find out which questions they were working on by clicking on the number. This provides a very quick way in which to track a child's progress through the levels and to analyse their strengths and areas to work on.

The software installed quickly and installed a shortcut onto the desktop. The speed was very quick and the children were provided with immediate answers to their work.

Uninstalling the program was from the Control Panel using the add and remove instruction. This worked well and the program quickly uninstalled. However, when I reloaded it I found that it was still holding information about a child that has used the program prior to uninstalling it. This was not a problem and if I had wanted to I could have deleted the child using the admin section of the program.

Braintastic Maths holds a wide range of activited that are appropriate to the Foundation and Key Stage 1 child. The title can be used in a wide variety of ways, individually, pairs or as a whole class activity. There are a wide variety of questions - 3,000 and this helps to ensure that the program remains fresh for the user. The ability to select the area that you wish the child to work on and the number of questions that they have to attempt helps to personalise it. The reward games at the end of the questions would motivate the user to keep trying

The title covers the numeracy curriculum at Foundation and Key Stage 1 and it is easy to select the content that you wish to cover. Assessment is held on the computer and it is possible to view the progress that the individual has made and to analyse where errors have occurred.

Read Foundation Content evaluation...

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