Mathematics and English progression

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Step 7 Objective

Generate terms of a sequence using term-to-term and position-to-term definitions of the sequence, on paper and using ICT.

Examples of what pupils should know and be able to do

Generate sequences from practical contexts.

• Find the first few terms of the sequence; describe how it continues using a term-to-term rule.
• Use algebraic expressions to describe the nth term, justifying them by referring to the context.
• When appropriate, compare different ways of arriving at the generalisation.

• FTM(S)Y789 pp. 154-7 - Acrobat pdf document (52Kb)

Probing questions

The term-to-term rule for a sequence is 'previous term + 2'. What does that tell you about the position-to-term rule? Do you have enough information to find the rule for the nth term? Why?

What do you look for in a sequence to help you to find the position-to-term (nth term) rule?

How would you go about finding the position-to-term (nth term) rule for this information on a sequence:

Position	3	5	10
Term	11	19	39

What if pupils find this a barrier?

See Step 6.
Choose from the building, classifying and snapshots activities in Teaching mental mathematics from level 5: algebra on p. 18 - Acrobat pdf document (36Kb).

• TMM from L5: algebra pp. 16-18 - Acrobat pdf document (48Kb)
• T5 Stinger 8 - Microsoft word document (24Kb)
• T5 Stinger 8 OHT - Microsoft word document (24Kb)