Homework 2-8 a mixed homework was due in on Thursday 14th November. A number of pupils in the class did not hand in the homework when it was due (despite being given a week in which to do it), whilst it was apparent that others had not bothered to attempt it until the night before as evidenced by the number of questions left out. Although some pupils did seek assistance at lunchtime on Thursday this is really too late to be able to provide any meaningful assistance with more than just one or two questions. The homework was mainly a recap of the work from Unit 1, and some questions demonstrated how a number of different topics can be expected to inter-relate. The class were informed that this was not particularly impressive and that quite a few of them have let themselves down and should therefore spent a significant amount of time going back over the work. As a result, I spent the period going over the whole of the homework detailing exactly how it should have been completed.
We finished Chapter 12 – Circles and the notes and exercises need to have been completed up to the end of the chapter. Much of this is fairly straightforward albeit mostly algebraic manipulation and being able to factorise expressions. The main work was finding the equations of tangents to circles.
We then began Chapter 9 – Integration which is the inverse of Differentiation which they should have mastered in Unit 1. As such, again pupils should have mastered essential topics from Standard Grade – the laws of indices and how to do basic calculations involving fractions which are in the Essential Skills chapter and can also be found on the MyMaths website (everyone has been told when we did Differentiation that this is a basic requirement). We covered the basics of integration i.e. the rules of integration and the class should have completed up to and including Ex9I by Tuesday 19th November. Once more algebraic manipulation is such an important aspect of being able to manage this work.
