Percentages with a calculator
There are three kinds of percentage calculation.
You can download a one sided handout with examples of each of the three kinds of percentage calculation and practice calculations with answers. The handout is available in A4 (Small print) and A3 (12 point) sizes. This lesson usually goes well with adult students after work on finding 10% and 5% using mental arithmetic.
Use in lesson
- I work through the worked example for the first kind first - about 5 min on whiteboard
- Students then complete the first column- about 10 to 15 minutes, often with questions about rounding off on the calculator
- Then we do the second column - stressing the different shape of the formula
- Individual work on the second column examples. Question 6 usually provokes questions about how to lay out the calculation - checking which percentage goes with which number of people.
- Then we tackle the third column. At least one person in most of the level 2 Access groups I teach can remember the recipe for splitting out VAT from invoices that include VAT.
- Individual work on column three. Question 6 always gets people going.
- I then have a mixed example handout with some degree of vocational context depending on the group. Questions are often taken out of textbooks.
- We stress the importance of reading the question and picking up cues as to the kind of calculation: Are we finding a percentage as the answer? Column 1. Are we finding a percentage of a whole? Column 2.
Differentiation
- Main differentiation is by speed
- More able or confident students start the column two questions before I go through them
- Students who are operating at level 1 in a level 2 class often stick with column 1 and 2 only. I have a separate example sheet with mixed questions from the first two columns for such students.
Originally added on Friday, May 30, 03
in category: number
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