Deepa Raghavan

A little about me

I teach Year 3 and lead primary mathematics. I use concrete materials before moving to pictures and then notation, and I do not skip the hands-on stage just because pupils appear ready. Working with something they can arrange gives the class a shared way to talk about the mathematical idea before we represent it in another form.

Pupils may arrive with different methods and prior experiences. I want to understand what a method is showing before asking anyone to replace it with another approach. Comparing strategies can help us notice what remains constant, what changes and which representation makes a relationship easier to see.

I look for resources that help pupils explain their thinking, not just produce an answer. A diagram is useful when each part has a clear meaning; notation is useful when pupils can connect it to the quantities they have represented. I prefer a careful discussion of one example to a fast sequence that leaves the reasoning hidden.