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!