Transcript Teaching Mathematics in Elementary School EDUC 2337 Spring

Math for ELLs
Sonia Dominguez
District Mathematics Coordinator
November 4, 2010
Objectives
• Explore the English Language Proficiency
Standards (ELPS) and apply them to
teaching mathematics
• Examine mathematics teaching and
learning
• Analyze the role of language in teaching
mathematics
What can we do to teach
MATHEMATICS to ALL
students?
Access Prior Knowledge
• One major challenge facing English
learners is…
• One major challenge we face as teachers
of English learners is…
English Language Learners
• English language learners (ELL) face the
daunting task of being responsible for
making progress in content area classes
while simultaneously learning academic
English, an abstract, complex form of
English specific to content area subjects.
English Language Proficiency
Standards (ELPS)
Statutory Requirement
19 Texas Administrative Code §74.4
Chapter 74. Curriculum Requirements
Subchapter A. Required Curriculum
§74.4 English Language Proficiency Standards
Approved November 16, 2007
These take the place of the ESL TEKS.
ELPS
Social and
academic
language
2nd language
acquisition and
content area
instruction
TEKS and
ELPS
Full
academic
potential
ELPS Components
A. Introduction
B. School District
Responsibilities
C. Cross-Curricular
Second Language
Acquisition
Knowledge and Skills
D. Proficiency Level
Descriptors
A. Introduction
• ELPS part of required curriculum
• ELL need to know social and academic
language
• Integrate second language acquisition with
content area instruction for all language
skills
• ELL must read, write, listen and speak with
increasing complexity
• ELPS SEs apply K-12
• Level descriptors serve as a road map
B. School Districts Shall
• Identify students language proficiency levels
• Provide linguistically accommodated instruction
in the content areas
• Provide content-based instruction based on ELPS
standards
• Provide targeted (intensive and ongoing)
language instruction for beginning and
intermediate ELLs (3-12)
C. Cross-curricular
Second Language Acquisition Essential
Knowledge and Skills
Learning
Strategies
Listening
Reading
Speaking
Writing
D. Proficiency Level Descriptors
Kindergarten – grade 12 ELLS may be at:
Beginning
Intermediate
Advanced
Advanced
high
levels of language proficiency in:
listening speaking reading
writing
Designing Math Instruction
Instruction that supports
academic language acquisition
in mathematics…
3 Critical Instructional Dimensions
Tasks
Tools
Classroom
Norms
Tasks
• Are complex and problematic for the learner
• Involve meaningful problem solving as
opposed to simple skill practice
• Are linked to the students’ backgrounds and
experiences
• Have multiple entry points and more than
one solution
• Rich in opportunities for math content and
language development
Tools
• Students use tools to represent mathematical
ideas and meaningful problem situations
• Include concrete manipulatives, pictorial or
graphical representations, graphing calculators,
etc.
• Students are provided with opportunities to use
any tool to explain their thinking to others
• Opportunity to bridge students representations
with symbolic notation and vocabulary
Mathematics Classroom Norms
• Students are making and justifying math
conjectures
• Students negotiate mathematical meaning
by listening to one another’s thinking
• Respectful, low-risk atmosphere
• Student collaboration
• Communication of ideas
• Lesson includes language and math
objectives
Mathematics Teaching and
Learning
• Classrooms must promote teaching and
learning mathematics with understanding
• Students must collaboratively engage in
making sense of mathematics tasks in
their own ways
• Focus is on conceptual understanding
• Students use multiple representations to
make connections to symbolic notation
Instructional Planning with the
ELPS
Identify the content
objective (TEKS)
Determine what
type of language
skills students will
use to participate in
the lesson and
process the
learning objective
Choose the
appropriate
language objective
from the ELPS
(section C)
Craft a language
objective using
specific vocabulary,
sentence stems,
and/or paragraph
frames to help
scaffold language
Essential Components of
Instruction for ELL Success
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Know students’ language proficiency levels
Plan linguistically accommodated instruction
Set language objectives
Access/build background knowledge
Use visuals and adapted materials
Explicitly teach vocabulary
Interaction strategies (so kids talk)
Assessment aligned to language proficiency
levels