TEACHING MATHEMATICS AND LANGUAGE TO ENGLISH LEARNERS

 WIDA CAN DO Descriptors

o Assess language development along a six-level continuum of language proficiency.
 level 1 are the least proficient in English, and those at level 6 are those who
have achieved a level of proficiency that approximates that of non-ELs of the
same age.
 Prior knowledge assessment
o identify where your ELs may need catching up as well as areas of knowledge that you
can build on
o Mathematics assessment that is pretranslated into multiple different languages
 Understanding of home country mathematical nuances
o Helps communicate to ELs and their families that you have an “asset-based” (rather
than a “deficitbased”) view of the knowledge.
 Linguistic demands of the mathematics problems
o a text that is not comprehensible will only measure the vocabulary that a student does
not know” - if students are unable to understand the language of the problem, they will
be unable to demonstrate their understanding of the mathematics
 Use of cognates can help emphasize the value of cultural relevance and conceptual familiarity in
helping students acquire content understanding
 Having your students explain their steps in complete written sentences using sequencing words
(such as first, next, then, finally) can help reinforce vocabulary and content understanding while
also providing EL students with a chance to do some thinking about a particular problem
 By asking students to discuss their predictions, complete their calculations, and then explain
their choices to others, you will add an important language practice step to the sequence of
your lesson.
 Word walls, anchor charts, and other visual aids
o Creating word walls for different mathematical operations and adding to them as new
words are encountered can help EL students build important vocabulary knowledge
o Helps students recall important concepts and language when completing classroom
activities

 Teachers can use this understanding to provide opportunities for students to use mathematics
to examine personal, communal, and social contexts.
 Mathematics teaching should leverage students’ culture, contexts, and identities to support
and enhance mathematics learning

Think of yourself as a learner first

 Provide students with confidence-building exercises that enable all students to succeed
 Celebrate creative approaches to problems – regardless of the solution
 Normalize mistakes and errors as learning opportunities
 Utilize real world connections to make the math relevant and meaningful
 Emphasize the importance of perseverance
 Use scaffolding questions to keep students out of their alarm zone
 Provide opportunities for meaningful collaboration with peers
 Incorporate hands on activities and manipulatives to build conceptual understanding
 Vary assessment methods and include authentic assessments

• Understanding the strengths and motivations that serve to develop students’ identities should
be embedded in the daily work of teachers.

• Mathematics teaching involves not only helping students develop mathematical skills but also
empowering students to seeing themselves as being doers of mathematics.

• Mathematics teaching should leverage students’ culture, contexts, and identities to support and
enhance mathematics learning (NCTM, 2014).

• We affirm mathematics identities by providing opportunities for students to make sense of and
persevere in challenging mathematics.

• Facilitate meaningful mathematical discourse

• Support productive struggle in learning mathematics

• Elicit and use evidence of student thinking

• This kind of teaching cultivates and affirms mathematical participation and behaviors

• We must provide opportunities that play to the strengths and challenges of students.

• Effective teaching practices have the potential to open up greater opportunities for higher-order
thinking and for raising the mathematics achievement of all students

• Classroom environments that foster a sense of community that allows students to express their
mathematical ideas.

• Allocate resources to ensure that all students are provided with an appropriate amount of
instructional time to maximize their learning potential.

• Eliminate the tracking of low-achieving students and instead structure interventions that
provide high-quality instruction and other classroom support, such as math coaches and
specialists.

• Provide support structures, co-curricular activities, and resources to increase the numbers of
students from all racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups who attain the highest levels
of mathematics achievement.

• Consider teacher assignment practices to ensure that struggling students have access to
effective mathematics teaching…

• Maintain a school-wide culture with high expectations and a growth mindset.

 • Develop and implement high-quality interventions.

• Ensure that curricular and extracurricular resources are available to support and challenge all
students.

• Teachers

• Develop socially, emotionally, and academically safe environments for mathematics

teaching and learning…

• Understand and use the social contexts, cultural backgrounds, and identities of students
as resources to foster access, motivate students to learn more mathematics, and engage
student interest.

• Model high expectations for each student’s success in problem solving, reasoning, and
understanding.

• Promote the development of a growth mindset among students.

How can you create opportunities in your courses to support and affirm identity development of English
Learners and students exhibiting math anxiety?

In order to create opportunities for affirm identity development of English Learners and
students with math anxiety, teachers must first self-reflect on our own math identity, evaluating our
preconceived notions about math difficulty as well assumptions regarding language barriers in
mathematics. Teachers must understand their own relationship with math and how imposing their
views on other students with varying math identities can greatly affect their development, having
unintended consequences of students’ limited career options, financial implications, inability to
accurately decipher statistics and suboptimal everyday decisions (Karnani, 2017).
To truly affirm students’ math identity development, teachers must promote a growth mindset
among students by examining and responding to the cultural backgrounds, social contexts, and
identities that affect their approach toward math (NCTM, 2014). Determining a student’s current
identity of themselves and how others view their math proficiency can be determined through prior
knowledge self-assessments. For example, when referring to EL students, WIDA descriptors and dual
language math problems are useful tools in revealing gaps (Leith, Rose, and King, 2016). Assessments
are modified for students with math anxiety by lacking a time limit for answering questions and through
the use scaffolded questions to keep students out of their alarm zone. Results from these assessments
should shape lesson plans to open up greater opportunities for higher-order thinking. Understanding
cultural backgrounds and social contexts, such nuances of home country mathematics, can help teachers
maintain an “asset-based” view of mathematics knowledge. By making lesson more accessible to both
EL students and those with math anxiety, providing more visual scaffolding and lessening the potential
linguistic interference, teachers can provide a familiarity to students that allows them to demonstrate
their understanding more clearly. In addition, leveraging the classroom setting, by incorporating hands
on activities and manipulatives in group settings, rather than independent work, creates an environment
where both EL and students with math anxiety can feel more comfortable and celebrated for creative
approaches regardless of the solution.
Ultimately opportunities for EL and students with math anxiety to affirm their math identity
development require teachers to display understanding of the factors affects student’s identity, self-
critique and modify lesson plan based on student’s abilities, and provide understanding through multiple
instructional means and environments. High-quality mathematics curriculum, effective teaching and
learning, high expectations, and the support and resources are needed to maximize their learning
potential and develop a high sense of agency and math identity (NCTM, 2014).

 How can technology integration support the needs of diverse learners, while advancing the
skills and concepts fostered by the math standards?
Technology integration encourages interaction form all types of learners. Technology
features allow learners to feature software, do demonstrations, model processes, share
learning experiences, guide discussion, or display independent work. This interactive
approach aids in making the content more realistic and comprehensible to students. Yet,
technology requires a school’s willingness to take risks in integration and professional
training. The ensure the advancement of the skills and concepts fostered by math students,
user must proactively address challenges of technology in pursuit of excellence in
mathematics.

The Digital Learning Visioning Committee determined that the continued pursuit of excellence in mathematics
education can best be secured by proactively raising challenging

 issues about technology integration and teaming with instructional technology leaders to address those
issues.
 The versatility of the whiteboard encourages its use with all types of learners
 Whiteboards can be used to feature software, do demonstrations, model processes, share
learning experiences, guide discussion, or display independent work
 This interactive approach to learning will make the content seem more realistic to
students.
 What are the benefits and drawbacks of integrating technology into instruction?
The benefits of technology include enabling students to become more active in the learning,
feeling more motivated to participate and engage in communication and discussion with both
peers and teachers. The versatility offered by technology helps students visualize and
comprehend mathematics, while their teachers gain deep insights into student cognition and
share their share their professional growth with a web-connected community (NCSM, 2015).
The drawbacks of technology stems from monetary investment from school or political parties
as well as professional training of teachers. When investments underfunded or the
inappropriate systems are selected, students may not get the full benefit and their math
identity will be stifled. Even when both the hardware devices and software are well-chosen,
teachers must receive the correct technological training to ensure they are maximizing student
engagement rather than t becoming a computer proctors who are disengaged from their role in
helping students to learn and grow
  Integrating technology enables students to become more active in the learning process.
When a student feels that he or she is more vested in actual learning, retention of the
material tends to rise significantly
 Research has shown that whiteboards have a positive impact on student motivation and
engagement
 Encourage students to compare and contrast similarities and differences. Then suggest
that they reach their own conclusions and make any correlations that they find between
the varying displays of data. The Internet can also be a ready source of graphs that
contain different data sets.
 Active participation by all students is encouraged and helps students think about the
complexities of each different type of triangle.
 Ball (2003) states that the whiteboard is bringing about changes in traditional teacher-
pupil discourse. Communication and discussion among the fellow students also occurs
naturally as many students begin to feel more comfortable with one another in this kind
of learning environment.
 There are, of course, other issues: The school must pay the start-up cost of the
technology, and teachers must learn how to prepare materials and be willing to take
some risks (Miller 2003)
 On one hand, technology can help students visualize and comprehend mathematics, while
their teachers gain deep insights into student cognition and share their professional
growth with a web-connected community. On the other hand, technology can water
down mathematics into competitive, drill and practice games for students, while
relegating teachers to the role of computer proctors who are disengaged from their role
in helping students to learn and grow.

even when both the hardware devices and software are well-chosen, there is inadequate allocation of instructional
technology staffing for successful implementation.

 Some teachers find it difficult to successfully operate software and/or hardware when using technology to
teach mathematics
 Many interactive whiteboards and computer labs are underutilized in mathematics education because the
professional staff, teachers and administrators are unprepared to take full advantage of these valuable
resources.
 Describe the teacher and student roles when technology is implemented.
Once technology is implemented, teachers must understand that their primary role is
to be the key aspect of student interactivity. Teachers must ensure they develop the
skills necessary to utilize their technology, feel comfortable with this technology, and
fully understand the interactive features and capabilities that these new technologies
can bring to the classroom. Through this, teachers can be agents of change in positively
affecting students’ math identity. Students, on the other hand, role includes being
open and willing to connect with technology to maximize their agency. Through a
 discovery approach, students must continue to ask questions and provide answers,
shifting the primary learning away from the teacher, thereby allowing the teacher to
facilitate the lesson and drive the content through more pedagogical practice and
blended learning.

 a teacher can manipulate shapes and words to represent objects in real time. Lessons
using the whiteboard can reach students who exhibit all learning styles, but lessons seem
particularly effective for those who learn best using visualization and spatial reasoning.
 students are now able to both ask questions and provide answers, thereby shifting some
of the learning away from the teacher. This discovery approach allows each student to
feel more connected and in tune with the learning.
 The skill of the teacher continues to be a key aspect of classroom interactivity ( Jones
2004). It will take time for the teacher to develop the skills, feel comfortable, and fully
realize all the interactive features and capabilities that these new technologies can bring
to the classroom. Teachers are the agents for this change in implementing much of these
technologies into their subject matter and determining the quality of use (Armstrong et
al. 2005).
increase student agency, with a greater emphasis on student-centric learning environments and peer-to-peer
collaborations as students matriculate from pre-kindergarten through grade

In what ways do UDL strategies enhance our ability to support and affirm student development
as achievers?
Universal Design for Learning strategies enhance the ability to support and affirm student development as achieves
through providing opportunities for how to engage students in their learning, how content is presented, and how
students respond and demonstrate their understanding, The UDL framework is based in brain research and builds its
principles on three learning networks: the affective network (means of engagement), the recognition network (means
of representation), and the strategic network (mean of action and expression). Through providing multiple means of
engagement, and action and expression, UDL strategy implementation allows students to develop into achievers
who can assess their own learning needs, monitor their own progress, and regulate and sustain their own interest in
the content. Furthermore, this allows students the opportunity to maximize their mathematic agency and identity.
Curriculums that apply UDL strategies execute this through defining appropriate goals, assessing student’s varied
needs, and assessing learning barriers. In defining goals, teachers must ensure goals allow student multiple means to
demonstrate their understanding rather than a singular expected outcome. appropriate goals, assessing student’s
varied needs, and considering learning barriers. In defining goals, teachers must ensure goals allow student multiple
means to demonstrate their understanding rather than a singular expected outcome. In the Universal Design for
Learning in Mathematics presentation, this is illustrated in the math problem on fractions presented by Ms. Flahive
and Ms. Ramirez. Ms. Flahive stopped the class and directed all student to draw boxes to divide the fraction,
whereas Ms. Ramirez asks the student to write what they know and initiate discussion on what strategy they are
familiar with to approach the problem. In assessing student’s varied needs, teachers must identify the strengths,
needs, and interests of individual students across the three learning network. This includes evaluating a student’s
cultural background, learning and communication styles, and identity. In considering learning barriers, teachers
must evaluate the curriculum to ensure students from diverse learning backgrounds, such as those EL students and
those with math anxiety, are understanding the delivered content and adjustments are made to content knowledge to
ensure students remain engaged. UDL strategies ultimately provide flexible learning options to customize the
learning approach to each student, allowing for greater engagement, higher student achievement, and continuous
motivation.
1. What do you see as the benefits of this approach to teaching mathematics?

The benefits of teaching math across the curriculum include not only increased
understanding in basic concepts and ability to reason and solve problems, but also provide
better insight into connecting math in student’s everyday life. Rather than focus on
mathematics as an isolated content which has a singular solution, math that allows for
multifaceted student driven solution approach stimulates a growth mindset. In turn,
students achieve higher success in both education and their careers. Furthermore, this
growth mindset perpetuates students’ inquisitiveness in the world around and shapes their
comprehension of how they fit into society’s structure as well as the social policies and
issues that shape society.

First, the not-so-subtle message is that math is basically irrelevant except for achieving success in
future math classes, becoming a scientist or mathematician, or making commercial transactions.
Second, students learn that math is not connected to social reality in any substantive way. Thus
students approach math in the abstract and never are encouraged to seriously consider the social
and ethical consequences of how math is sometimes used in society. Third, if students are not
taught how math can be applied in their lives, they are robbed of an important tool to help them
fully participate in society.

my students’ interest and skill in math have increased, both in terms of their understanding of basic
concepts and their ability to solve problems. Furthermore, they can better clarify social issues,
understand the structures of society, and offer options for better social policies. Kids need every tool
they can (Peterson)

Students should not just be memorizing past methods; they need to engage, do, act, perform, and
problem solve, for if they don’t use mathematics as they learn it, they will find it very difficult to do
so in other situations, including examinations (Penguin, 29)

2. How does your current practice of teaching math or integrating math into your content area
compare with ideas outlined in the articles?

I teach social studies to K-2 with topics ranging from the first Thanksgiving to George
Washington and the American Revolution to dissecting maps and landforms. While many of
Scholastics magazines I use to guide my lesson plan topic reference both Social Studies and
Language standards, I try to incorporate mathematics whenever possible. As we study
historical events, students pay particular attention to dates and data. When prompting the
students after a video or reading, students are asked to compare their lives to today,
thinking about the value of good of wages of workers as to fully immerse themselves in that
time period. Learning about maps and landforms, students examine scales and determine
heights or locations through mathematics. I have seen a markedly different engagement
 and more questions in lessons in which these activities are practices, so much so that I have
had student’s parents commend me for their child’s continued interest at home.

comprehension of how they fit into society’s structure as well as the social policies and
issues that shape society.

As we study history, we pay particular attention to dates and data. I try to highlight numbers that
relate to social movements for equity and justice

development of math literacy advances students' abilities to analyze, explain and reason—skills that
support learning in all subjects. When teachers make cross-curricular connections between math and other
content areas, they help demonstrate for students the relevance of math to their everyday lives (Jenkins
and Ms. Neyda Fernadez-Evans, 2008) ,

Provide a 2-3 sentence description for EACH of the 8 standards that captures their
role in creating a collaborative, engaging learning environment or support student
mathematical thinking.

 Select TWO standards and complete the following tasks:

o Find your grade-level on the list.
o Read the description of the standard for your grade-level and view the
associated clip
o Discuss some of the instructional practices employed by the featured math
teacher that would reinforce the skills and habits of mind required of the
practice standards.

1. Make sense of problems & persevere in solving them – Students must understand a
problem, use their knowledge in applying several ways to solve it, and ensure the finished
work makes sense. Students focus on the process of solving the problem rather than getting
the correct answer.
2. Reason abstractly & quantitatively – Students must display abstract thinking through their
ability to decontextualize and contextualize. Using symbols and other representations,
students apply multiple ways to solve problems rather than apply one algorithm.
3. Construct viable arguments & critique the reasoning of others – Student must be able to
think through the steps to solving problems and be able to defend their position. By using
reason to support or object to other’s work, student can develop communication skills to
explain their math thinking.
4. Model with mathematics – Students must use what they know to solve problems in
everyday life. Students use various mathematical methods to simply complex problems and
identify important quantities for relationships. Upon drawing conclusions from
relationships, student must reflect on results to ensure they make sense.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically – Students must know how to choose and use the right
tools to solve a math problems. By recognizing the strengths and weakness of each tool,
students can pose and solve problems as well as detect possible errors, thus deepening
their understanding of mathematics.
6. Attend to precision – Students must communicate precisely to others, using mathematical
definitions to explain their reasoning. Calculating accurately and efficiently, Student must
understand the meaning of symbols and label quantities appropriately.
7. Look for & make use of structure – Students must identify patterns and structure in
mathematics to identify new problems. Through repeated reasoning, students can solve
more complicated problems using tools to break problems into separate parts.
8. Look for & express regularity in repeated reasoning – Students must use reasoning from the
solution to one problem and relay that problem-solving technique to other problems.
Through identifying repeated calculations and looking for generalizations and shortcuts,
students must understand the broader application of patterns and see the structure in
similar situations.

In choosing to study assessments “look for and make use of structure” and “construct
viable arguments & critique the reasoning of others,” I watched the video on Liz O’Neill’s First
Grade math class on composing and decomposing numbers using base ten. While I teacher
social studies to K-2 presently, I have experience incorporating some of the same related
lessons last year as a second grade homeroom teacher.
In looking for and making use of structure, Ms. O’Neill presents the challenge of
calculating a target number of 34 through multiple methods. Ms. O’Neill expects students to
explain the overall structure of the problem and the math methodology used to solve the
problem. O’Neill calls on individual students at random not only to check for understanding, but
also to see their induvial method of solving the problem and ensure they are able to explain
their solution. Ms. O’Neill draw out each student’s method of solution on the board to show
visual representation of the student’s proposed solution. Through this, Ms. O’Neill encourages
students to look at something they recognize and have students apply the information in
deconstructing the problem into smaller parts. Ms. O’Neill also provided another challenge I
which students must rename he target number of 23 as many ways as possible. Before
beginning the exercise, Ms. O’Neill ensure the class is already familiar with ten blocks as they
are now going to build on this prior knowledge. After quickly showing a problem with 3 ten
frames, students collaborate with a partner to support or reject each other’s findings. Like
prior, Ms. O’Neill calls on each student to find out the method used to solve the problem. She
displays each method in a sentence structure to incorporate language in the curriculum as well
as visually show the structure of each methods used. For example, she shows the methods that
include achieving 23 through counting by 2 blocks, 5 blocks, and 10 blocks.
In constructing viable arguments & critique the reasoning of others, Ms. O’Neill uses a
numbers game activity called “How Many are Hiding?” where students have 10 cubes and a
paper plate, in which some of the cubes are “hidden” under the plate. Students work in pairs
and one partner takes some of the cubes and "hides" them under the plate. The remaining are
placed on the top. The second partner uses sentence frames to answer the questions "What
number do you see?", "How many are hiding?", "How do you know __ are hiding"? By using
sentence framing posted on the board, students can visually see the justification of their solving
strategies and produce mathematic language to convince their partners. This encourages
students to use proven mathematical understanding and ask questions which require student
to justify their solution and their solution pathway. By pairing off into groups, Ms. O’Neill can
ask students to compare and contrast various solution methods with other students but also
readily identify students’ understanding.
When reviewing both these standards practiced in Ms. O’Neil’s lesson, I noticed her
reinforcement of skills by first establishing a baseline fore recall and building on previous
knowledge. She continuously checked for understanding, both as a group and individually.
When doing so, she not only asked the students if they understood, but if they could explain
their understanding and how they arrived at their solution. To reinforce a broader
understanding of multiple solution pathways, Ms. O’Neill incorporated partnering and sharing
of solutions. This practice helped children develop communication but also reflect on their own
work. Ms. O’Neill regularly spelled out each solution in both sentence framing and visual al
diagrams and other manipulatives to differentiate the learning.