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Can I tempt you to try a pre-worked example?

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Pre-worked examples (written up in full before the lesson)
I'm a convert.
I rarely do first examples live.
Here's why: .
But what about I do/we do/you do?
It's still there, of sorts.

Here's an example, prompts and follow up task.
Question 5 is written as a “we do”.
The first few questions in the follow up task are also available as additional examples if needed.



How does it work in the classroom?
Ideally I want to display just the question first, to give students a chance to consider how they might answer it, and then display the whole solution.

In reality it often happens that I forget to cover up the solution so they see both at the same time.

Once they've had a chance to read through the question and solution in silence, I use cold call to check for basic understanding of steps.
For this example those cold call questions might be:
We then proceed to the prompts.
Depending on the ability of the class these can be done individually, with their partner or one at a time with me leading from the front.
How do you write the prompts?
I tend to focus on: I don't worry too much if I manage to cover one of these points when I'm cold calling.
The process of writing down their answers ensures everyone has understood.

Below you can see how I came up with the prompts for this example:
1   The word regular is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this question.
I should check they understand what that means.
I'd like them to write down a defintion rather than just a cold call answer.
What does the word “regular” mean in this question?
2 A common misconception is to think that interior and an exterior add up to 360°.
It would be worth making this error explicit.
Karen's friend says that to find one exterior angle you have to work out 360°−150°.
Explain why they are wrong.
(You may find it useful to draw a sketch.)
3 It would be useful for them to write down the statement exterior angles in a polygon add up to 360°. What fact about exterior angles in polygons has Karen used to answer this question?
4 They should realise that if they get a non-integer answer they have made a mistake. If Karen got an answer of 15.25 sides, how would she know that she had made a mistake?
5 A "we do". What if the question said:
A regular polygon has an interior angle of 150°.
How many sides does the polygon have?

What would your answer look like?

So...

Can I tempt you to try a pre-written worked example?