ELLs and Math

 "Explain your thinking."

"Tell how you found the answer."

The communication aspect of problem solving in math poses a huge obstacle for ELLs. They are often penalized marks on tests because they couldn't understand what the problem was asking, nor could they formulate responses effectively. 

However, communication does not always need to be verbal. Here's an example: The teacher presented a number of images of two-dimensional shapes on the whiteboard. The students were asked to find a pair of shapes that were congruent. My ELL student raised her hand, and even though she hadn't volunteered to answer any questions in class, she knew the answer. 

She walked up to the board, and pointed to the two congruent shapes. The teacher asked her how she knew. She placed one shape on top of the other to show that they had the same number of sides, and were the same size. Did she understand the concept of congruence? Yes! Did she communicate her thinking? Yes! 

I usually suggest to teachers that they should not mark students on things they haven't been taught. It seems obvious, but far too often, we ask ELLs to communicate their thinking in writing. It's far better to teach them the relevant vocabulary, along with common sentence frames for responses. 

This is why I create the products that are in my store. It's all about scaffolding the learning for English Language Learners as they learn English through the content of the Ontario Curriculum. 

While these resources will need updating to the new math curriculum, they do have a lot of relevant material for fractions and decimals in Grades 4 and 5. I'm currently working on the Grade 6 version, which does present visual supports for the new math curriculum. Check them out! 

        

Do ELLs need pictures for phonemic awareness?

 

Do ELLs need pictures when they are learning the sounds of English?

This was a question asked on Twitter by the very knowledgeable Dr Katie Toppel: 

Should phonemic awareness practice include pictures/visuals? (By visuals I mean images connected to words being manipulated, not print/letters)

There were lots of great answers: some were concerned about possible confusion created by pictures. Some thought we should avoid a never/always mindset. Here was my response:

I always use visuals when presenting sound patterns in English. English speakers "see" the referent in their minds when they hear words. ELLs don't. So it's 'always' and then 'sometimes' and then 'not needed'.

My students responded very well to lessons and activities that incorporated picture cards. That gave them a referent to 'see' when pronouncing the words.

Also, they were better able to connect sounds to words when they could see how the sound worked in the word. For example, we learned that CVC words make a short sound. Then I added the final silent 'e' and discussed the change in the sound of the vowel. For this reason I colour code the letters in the words. All vowels are red because they play such an important role in the representation of words in graphic form. No vowel = not a word!

I believe strongly that these resources are lacking in regular school resources because English speakers learn these sounds and corresponding words much earlier in their learning. Older students might not be interested in the vast number of resources that are geared toward this younger set. To meet this need, I created a number of card sets using photographs of real objects. These cards are much more accessible to students in Grades 4 and up.

I have created, and continue to create card sets for Alphabet Naming and Sound Identification, CVC words, Consonant Digraphs and Blends, and have recently completed CVCe words: aCe.

Check out my most recent creation: CVCe in my store.