My top websites for planning lessons

This post is taken from a thread on Twitter I posted some time ago which got a fair amount of interest and I keep going back to it myself so I thought I would post it here to make it easier for me to find.

It started out as my top 11 sites for planning lessons, but it has already grown to 12 and I imagine it will keep growing!

[Update: my amp now goes to 13 so I can include @mathsjem‘s resourceaholic website which is awesome! In fact your probably better off ignoring the rest of my post and just going straight there!]

[Update 2 (23/12/18): I’ve nicked two of @mathsjem‘s ‘hidden gems’ and crammed them in at numbers 4.1 and 4.2 below!]

[Update 3 (04/05/19): Another gem from @mathsjem has made it onto my ‘Go To’ list, see 12.1 below]

1: https://diagnosticquestions.com/  from @mrbartonmaths, loads of top quality multiple choice questions to tease out misconceptions from students at the start, middle or end of lessons. I am embedding Diagnostic questions in nearly every learning cycle now as they are so powerful. Just recently I planned a lesson with one group and the diagnostic questions at the beginning showed me that some underpinning knowledge was missing. I was able to respond to that and  the next lesson we took a step back and built that foundation from the bottom up with everyone feeling more successful.

2: https://variationtheory.com/  also by @mrbartonmaths with intelligently varied practice questions including examples, rules, patterns and demonstrations. This is quiet a new website and I am often dipping in but I feel that I need to spend a little more time getting my head around the subtleties of the different techniques involved here.

3: https://minimallydifferent.wordpress.com/  from @FortyNineCubed who I believe helped @mrbartonmaths to set up the variation theory website above, so this website also has tons of great activities on it.

4: http://taylorda01.weebly.com/increasingly-difficult-questions.html … from @taylorda01 which does exactly what it says on the tin! Increasingly difficult questions from this site are great. They tend to start off at a level everyone can access and have enough stretch for the most able by the time you get to the end.

4.1: I discovered this one (and 4.2, below) from @mrbartonmaths podcast with @mathsjem celebrating her outstanding achievement of reaching her 100th Gems post. Algebra By Example from @SERPInstitute helps to address misconceptions through the use of well designed exemplar worked solutions and incorrect answers: https://math.serpmedia.org/algebra_by_example/download_center.html

4.2:  This is @colinfoster77 with an absolutely smashing hidden gem. Hidden, that is until now, so thanks to Craig and Jo for unearthing this beauty. Purposeful practice: http://www.foster77.co.uk/instantmathsideas.htm

5: https://mathsvenns.com/  also from @mrbartonmaths which has loads of purposeful practice activities on it. These are great and I made my first few the other day which I will submit to the website soon. One thing I love about Craig’s websites is the collaborative nature of them – everyone chipping in to grow the bank of resources.

6: https://ssddproblems.com/  again from @mrbartonmaths ! which has loads of nice activities which tie into the idea of interleaving.

7: http://www.mathematicaletudes.com/ purposeful practice from @colinfoster77

8: https://nrich.maths.org/  classic problem-solving website from @nrichmaths

9: https://donsteward.blogspot.com/  Lovely rich tasks

10: http://www.openmiddle.com/  Challenging maths problems worth solving!

11: https://corbettmaths.com/  from the incredible @Corbettmaths with absolutely tons of quality questions and resources including the 5-a-day, videos, worksheets, practice papers, conundrums and more.

That was the orginal 11 sites I listed, but I feel like I have to add @Just_Maths‘ awesome 9-1 exam questions by topic website, so:

12: Just maths 9-1 by topic:

 https://justmaths.co.uk/2015/12/21/9-1-exam-questions-by-topic-higher-tier/

https://justmaths.co.uk/2015/11/29/9-1-exam-questions-by-topic-foundation-version-2/

https://justmaths.co.uk/2016/01/03/9-1-exam-questions-by-topic-both-tiers/

12.1: I’ve had to update my list to include goteachmaths.co.uk which was brought to my attention by the amazing @mathsjem. Goteachmaths has a comprehensive collection of activities and exam-style questions on pretty much every topic for GCSE maths which is an absolute gold mine!

13: No list of resource websites would ever be complete but http://www.resourceaholic.com from @mathsjem comes pretty close! I especially love the textbook exercises from the 1950 which are the original godfathers of intelligent variation.