Teaching math to English learners in middle and high school requires a nuanced approach.
Those students are often at very different places in their language development and in their academic grounding in the subject. And school districts have taken contrasting approaches to supporting the population, some of them based on specific interventions and extra support, others rooted in instruction fully or mostly in students’ native languages.
“People think that math is about putting numbers together—like putting puzzles together—but that’s not true,” said Habiba Machkor, an ESOL teacher at Annandale High School in Fairfax County, Va., and a participant in an Education Week Essentials Forum held last week to discuss strategies to support English learners.
“It’s a bigger picture [that requires] correct academic language [or else] the learning process for English learners is not going to be completed.”
English learners’ academic performance in math has declined faster than that of their peers, according to recent results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. English learners in middle and high school are at different places in their language development, which can undermine their confidence and engagement, according to EdWeek reporting.
The approach used in supporting older English learners in math at Annandale High School, in suburban Washington, D.C., was profiled in a recent EdWeek special report.
Speakers at the online Essentials Forum spoke about the myriad challenges English learners face when learning math and the resources available to educators. The group also discussed classroom practices that can help increase students’ engagement and confidence in math—a critical part of older students’ journey to become more proficient in the subject. (Watch the forum on demand here.)
Helping students find “the beautiful and creative parts of math”
One challenge that English learners face is the distinct and often confusing vocabulary of math.
In math lessons, for example, the word “table” has a variety of meanings, beyond the most commonly used definitions in English. It can mean an organized arrangement of numbers, values, or variables in horizontal rows and vertical columns.
“We have to work to develop a shared meaning that is consistent with the mathematical understanding,” said Zandra de Araujo, mathematics principal at the Lastinger Center for Learning at the University of Florida. “It takes a lot of interaction, talking, and showing non-examples, so we can get to an understanding.”
Another challenge lies in the teacher preparation.
The curriculum material for English learners in math tends to be labeled in a way that suggests all students need remediation. Materials for advanced students, by contrast, are labeled as enrichment, said Araujo.
English learners are also often represented in curriculum materials as struggling students, when in fact they may be at very different places in their understanding.
This is why, when Araujo works with ESOL/math teachers, she emphasizes “breaking down deficit beliefs” that are “perpetuated by the resources that are provided for [them],” she said.
One consequence of that “deficit belief” is watering down the learning, said Araujo. Teachers will strip down math problems, thinking it will help students understand the material more fully. While students might be more engaged with the lessons, they aren’t learning what’s really important in the subject, said Araujo.
They are “missing the most beautiful and creative parts of mathematics, which are the problem-posing, the problem-solving, the discourse with your peers,” she said.
Strategies include modeling, pre-teaching, and effective use of visuals
A number of classroom practices can help English learners become more comfortable with and skilled in math, including visuals, modeling, and pre-teaching, said Machkor.
Teachers also can model math practices before assigning them to students as group work. For example, if a problem is up on the board, a teacher can complete it while explaining the necessary steps. Then a worksheet will be handed out with a similar problem, which students will complete with partners or in groups, while the teachers walk around the room offering assistance if needed.
Pre-teaching, which is making sure students understand the vocabulary used in math, is also important for students, said Machkor. For example, when students are assigned a math problem, breaking it up into chunks can make it more digestible. This is part of building up a student’s academic literacy.
Another activity students did at Annandale High School this academic year was rewriting the steps expected to solve a problem in a more student-friendly language, said Anna Kyle, a math/ESOL teacher there.
For example, in one unit, students were given a problem like finding the product of two different polynomials. Before beginning the problem, students would have to write something like “‘I am multiplying, so I use this method, and then set up using that method,” said Kyle.
“We’ve been working a lot helping students make sense of that academic language through the use of scaffolding,” she said.
Kyle added that both she and Machkor can do the classroom practices separately, but also together. It’s important to have co-teachers who both have collective ownership of the classroom, said Kyle.
Students should “see that they can go to either of us if they have a question,” she said. “If someone were to walk into our classroom, they shouldn’t be able to tell who is the math teacher in the room, who is the ESOL teacher.”
