Join the War On Error!

On Friday night, I was included in a tweet with this image:

I've always meant to do something with errors. I wanted to do an 'I've made a huge mistake...' display inspired by @JustMaths and Arrested Development, but I never got on to it. My plan was to have students go back through their mocks and find the basic errors, and add them to the display. Because it would involve mocks and be personal to one class, I decided that I wouldn't do it in the end.

I now have a better plan, inspired by an image I saw on Twitter or Pinterest or something.

Welcome to...

Here is the plan:

1. Back display board with black backing paper.

2. Print this image on A3 and put in the centre at the top of the board:

3. Print this image on A3 and put just below the image above:

4. Print these on A5 and add errors as they arrive:

5. Any student who makes reference to the War on Error during lessons will receive a sticker:

The errors I'm thinking of are...

a x a = 2a

3a + 3b = 6ab

2^3 = 6

A 'rhombus' (image only) is called a 'diamond'.

I don't want to put any answers up and when kids do assessments in class I'd rather this not be an answers sheet, but will make students think about their errors more.

JOIN THE WAR ON ERROR.