Tag Archives: Journal Article

Choosing Math Tasks for ELLs

This is the first of my #ShareMathEdResearch summaries. This is a work in progress. I welcome comments and questions on the format. Is it helpful? Are there other things that would be helpful to know? Are there some parts that aren’t necessary? Is this a helpful summary for practitioners and the public? Etc.

Article

This article is from my dissertation study and focused on how high school math teachers taught English learners.

de Araujo, Z. (2017). Connections between secondary mathematics teachers’ beliefs and their selection of tasks for English language learners. Curriculum Inquiry, 47, 363–389.

Summary

Teachers often take a seemingly common sense approach to teaching mathematics with English learners, but that approach can result in students working on less interesting and meaningful math.

Why did I do the study?

When I was a high school mathematics teacher in Orlando, Florida I taught a lot of English learners, but I did not teach them well. I didn’t know how to make math accessible without dumbing it down. There are reports that almost all U.S. teachers teach English learners, but we still don’t know much about how teachers choose problems and resources for English learners. I thought this study would provide some much needed insight in this area so I can help teachers who teach math with English learners.

What/who did I study?

Three teachers allowed me to learn from them. Each teacher taught a ninth-grade math class for English learners. The English learners were from different countries (including the US), but mostly spoke Spanish as their first language. The students also had different levels of English proficiency; some could speak, understand, write, and read in English while others were still learning.

I observed the teachers’ lessons for about two weeks. Before and after each lesson I interviewed them about their plans and how they thought it went. I also took field notes and did a couple of final interviews after the two weeks were up.

What did I find and why does it matter?

I found that the teachers did a lot of the things I did as a teacher. They took out words/language because they didn’t want to complicate the mathematics. However, math and language are connected. Math learning involves (and requires) talking, listening, reading, and writing about math. Also, more complex math problems tend to have more language, so taking away the language usually results in easier math (not always a good thing). The result is that many of the students participated in less meaningful and complex math.

I also found that we (I include myself in this) tend to talk about English learners as a single group of students. Each student is different in terms of the knowledge and resources they bring to the classroom. English learners vary greatly in their English proficiency. We need to know our students so we can draw on their prior knowledge and meet their individual needs.

Finally, I found (as have others before me) that our beliefs impact our practice greatly. We need to regularly check ourselves to make sure we are forming positive beliefs about our students. If we don’t believe our students can do something, they probably won’t because we won’t let them. If we believe they can do something, we will try our hardest to make it so.

What are my big take aways?

We can’t remove language from math. Instead of thinking about how to make language easier, we need to think about how to help students learn math and language (even if we are math teachers). Whenever we focus on only math or only language, we are not truly supporting English learners.

I also learned that I need to try out some specific practices in schools with teachers and students so we can see what actually works. I know a lot about what doesn’t work, so now we need to know more about what does work.

Other Resources

When I was a guest on Sam Otten’s Math Ed Podcast I talked about this article. You can listen here.

Two books on teaching math with English learners that I really like.

New Book Chapter

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When I was at NCTM’s Annual Conference last month, I was surprised and excited to learn that my newest publication is now available. I cowrote this chapter with a doctoral student (Erin Smith) and an elementary teacher (Melanie Kremmel). The chapter focuses on strategies Melanie (a new teacher at the time) used when teaching mathematics with Oksana, a newly arrived emergent bilingual student from the Ukraine.

In this chapter we connect Ms. Kremmel’s experiences with Oksana to a broader conversation about the ways in which teachers facilitate the instruction of English learners in elementary grades. In particular, we focus on the ways in which Ms. Kremmel was able to broaden her notion of communication to build on the resources Oksana did have in English rather than focusing on those she did not have. In doing so, Ms. Kremmel was able to help Oksana further her understanding of both mathematics and language. (p. 69)

Along with our chapter, the book features chapters from many of my favorite mathematics educators. I hope you can check it out!

Citation

de Araujo, Z., Smith, E., & Kremmel, M. (2018). Moving the mathematics forward while acquiring English. In S. Crespo, S. Celedón-Pattichis, & M. Civil (Eds.),  Access and Equity: Promoting high-quality mathematics in grades 3-5 (pp. 67-80). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Book Description (from NCTM’s website)

Edited by Sandra Crespo, Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis, and Marta Civil

Promoting empowerment, meaningful participation, and success for each and every student

Access and Equity: Promoting High-Quality Mathematics in Grades 3–5 examines the challenges related to access, equity, and empowerment faced by students making the critical transition into mathematics of the third through fifth grades. It provides guidance for making these essential improvements in practice:

  • Finding ways to reframe common beliefs about nondominant students and communities
  • Meeting the linguistic demands in mathematics classrooms for emerging bilingual students
  • Adopting approaches that engage all students in mathematical discourse
  • Implementing professional development that can make an impact with culturally and linguistically diverse students

The third through fifth grades are a crucial period when educational imbalances begin to take hold, as inequities in resources and expectations become more pronounced and significant. This book will help teachers provide a challenging, effective mathematics education for each and every student in those classrooms, and thus fully implement the Access and Equity Principle in NCTM’s Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All.

New Curriculum Inquiry Article

An article from my dissertation study was finally published! It took awhile, but I am proud of how it came out. Here is the reference:

de Araujo, Z. (in press). Connections between secondary mathematics teachers’ beliefs and their selection of tasks for English language learners. Curriculum Inquiry

The big takeaway from this article is this: What is intuitive regrading teaching mathematics with English learners is often not what is best.

Abstract: The tasks teachers select impact students’ opportunities to learn mathematics and teachers’ beliefs influence their choice of tasks. Through the qualitative analysis of surveys, interviews and classroom artefacts from three secondary mathematics teachers, this study examined teachers’ selection of mathematics tasks for English language learners (ELLs). In particular, this study explored teachers’ beliefs about ELLs and the ways in which those beliefs manifested in their selection of tasks. In order to accommodate ELLs, the teachers selected tasks that were repetitive, procedure-focused and devoid of context. The teachers’ choice of tasks stemmed from their beliefs about ELLs’ mathematical and linguistic abilities. Furthermore, the teachers often referred to ELLs as a homogenous group and this generalization, coupled with beliefs about ELLs’ mathematical and linguistic abilities, was evident in their task selections. The findings suggest a need to critically examine the potential impact of seemingly benign teaching practices and the beliefs underlying them.

 

New TEEM Article

TEEM 8My newest publication is now available here.

I, J. Y*., & de Araujo, Z. (2017). Slowing down the in the moment decision-making process: The case of one mathematics teacher and one English learner. Teaching for Equity and Excellence in Mathematics, 8(1), 15–22. 

This article was written with Ji Yeong I while she was a graduate student at Mizzou. Here’s the abstract:

Teachers have to make many in-the-moment decisions when teaching. We investigated one teacher’s decisions in response to the difference between the intended meaning of a mathematical problem and her student’s understanding. The student—an English language learner—had a different interpretation of the mathematical scenario related to one particular clause in the problem that was, ironically, intended to be explanatory but ended up obscuring intended meaning and therefore impacted the student’s solution. In order to reflect on the teacher’s decisions, we include a vignette that illustrates the teacher’s tensions when making her instructional decisions. The vignette is followed by the teacher’s rationale for her decisions and an analysis of the episode. We invite readers to participate in her decision-making process and explore impacts of each decision.

Feel free to share your thoughts below.