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Improve mental maths skills to build confidence

Think Mentals 10/3/20

Did you know students with strong mental computation skills are typically more confident in their overall maths ability? Here are three ways you can develop that confidence in your mental maths lessons.

1. Teach strategies efficiently

With the right resources, you can explicitly teach a mental maths strategy in about 15 minutes, which is perfect for keeping these weekly lessons fun, quick and simple.

Use the free, projectable ‘strategy snapshots’ at Think Mentals Workbook Answers to help you teach each strategy. Every snapshot includes a friendly 2- or 3-step strategy, along with several additional examples.

Alternatively, if you have access to Think Mentals Digital Classroom, use the carefully scaffolded strategy lessons. Each lesson sequence includes an engaging, animated video to introduce the strategy. Look out for the pause prompts – these are great opportunities to check for student understanding.

2. Ask the right questions

Ask questions that help students effectively practise mental maths strategies. It should be possible for students to solve questions in their heads – after all, that’s the goal of mental computation. Leave questions that introduce new maths concepts for your other maths lessons.

Think Mentals scaffolded questions take the hassle out of creating the ‘right’ types of questions for you. Every question has been carefully crafted so students can confidently work out the solution in their heads.

3. Consolidate strategies in other lessons

Look for opportunities in your maths lessons to refer students back to mental maths strategies. For example, when learning about currency, encourage students to use Friendly Jumps to find the closest whole dollar value.

Remember, students can refer to Think Mentals strategy resources at any time. The Student Workbooks contain strategy snapshots, and the Digital Classroom includes strategy slideshows and videos.

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