23
Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

  • Upload
    azia

  • View
    46

  • Download
    1

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?. Mark Driscoll , EDC, Inc. Daniel Heck , Horizon Research, Inc. Kathryn Chval , University of Missouri. The Challenge. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Citation preview

Page 1: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What

Knowledge Do They Need?

Page 2: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

The Challenge

• Mathematics teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) are increasingly expected to help ELLs learn academic language while learning mathematics.

• Many are understandingly challenged by this expectation, possibly viewing it as something beyond supporting student learning of mathematics content.

Page 3: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Teacher Knowledge

• Teachers must develop and draw from numerous knowledge bases to effectively teach mathematics to all their students.

• Shulman, 1986; Grossman, 1990; Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko, 1999; Hill, Ball, and Schilling, 2008 have conceptualized teacher knowledge and developed frameworks for consideration.

Page 4: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Outline of Session

• Introduction of our work and guiding principles

• Analysis of a mathematical task

• Discussion of relevant teacher knowledge

Page 5: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Kathryn’s CAREER Grant

• CAREER: A Study of Strategies and Social Processes that Facilitate the Participation of Latino English Language Learners in Elementary Mathematics Classroom Communities

Page 6: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Research Question

In what ways and under what contexts do the identified research-based strategies facilitate Latino ELLs’ participation in elementary mathematics classrooms? Influence expectations and norms?

Page 7: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Fostering Mathematics Success of English Language Learners

(FMSELL)

A Collaboration of EDC and Horizon Research, Inc.

Page 8: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

What led us to link geometry to ELLs:

Fostering Geometric Thinking

Fostering Geometric Thinking Toolkit

Published by Heinemann, Inc.

Page 9: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

FMSELL Research Questions• Does participation in FGTT increase teachers’

geometric content knowledge?• What effects does teachers’ participation in FGTT

have on their attention to students’ thinking and mathematical communication when teachers analyze student work?

• What effects does teachers’ participation in FGTT have on instructional practices, especially those known to benefit ELLs?

• What impact on ELLs’ problem-solving strategies is evident when teachers participate in FGTT?

Page 10: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

3 Guiding Principles

• The Challenging Mathematical Tasks Principle

• The Multimodal Communication Principle

• The Academic Language Principle

Page 11: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Principle 1: The Challenging Mathematical Tasks Principle

No matter what category ELLs fit into—from students newly arrived in the country and just beginning to learn English, to those who have advanced to “Former Limited English Proficient”—it is both possible and important to engage all these students in regular mathematical work that challenges them to reason, solve problems, conjecture, and convince.

Page 12: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Principle 2: The Multimodal Communication Principle

Classroom environments that make ample use of multimodal communication—pictures, diagrams, presentations, oral explanations, written explanations, and gestures—afford ELLs the means to express the thinking behind their reasoning and problem solving.

Page 13: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Principle 3: The Academic Language Principle

In the mathematics classroom, ELLs can learn to express their mathematical thinking and reasoning in precise academic language, provided mathematics teachers work to understand and apply the ways in which language is implicated in the learning of mathematics. In brief, mathematics teachers of ELLs need to recognize that they also are language teachers.

Page 14: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?
Page 15: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

The Dissections Problem

Fostering Geometric Thinking Toolkit(Published by Heinemann, 2008)

Page 16: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

The Dissections Problem – Purpose

• Explore your own and your colleagues’ geometric thinking

• See the principles in action– in particular, we’ll unpack the use of multi-modal

communication

• Prepare to analyze students’ language and geometric thinking on this problem

Page 17: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

The Dissections Problem – Plan• (5 min) Begin Exploring Problem 1 Individually.

• (15 min) Explore Problem 1 in Small Groups.– If you finish you can move on to Problem 2.

• (10 min) Prepare to share convincing mathematical explanations.– Each group will be given instructions about how to share.

• (10 min) Share thinking with full group.

• (5 min) Debrief use of multi-modal communication and academic language.

Page 18: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

The Dissections Problem – Sharing• Purpose: – Share and explore geometric thinking – Develop language around convincing mathematical

explanations – Consider the affordances of different modes of

communication

• Directions:– Listen to or watch five different types of geometric

thinking presentations– Take notes on the Presentation Notes handout

Page 19: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

What helped you understand presenters’ geometric thinking?

Page 20: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

Group Discussion

What knowledge do teachers of mathematics need in order to support the learning of ELLs?

How do we help preservice and practicing teachers develop this knowledge?

Page 21: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

What Knowledge is Needed?• Strategies for engaging ELLs in oral and

written production in the classroom • Strategies for scaffolding and structuring

mathematics tasks to heighten access for ELLs, without watering down the cognitive challenges in the tasks

• Strategies for facilitating productive peer interactions

• Strategies for negotiating meanings

Page 22: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

What Knowledge is Needed?

• Knowledge of at least some basic ways in which language is implicated in the learning of mathematics—e.g., awareness that words like ‘same’ and ‘any’ underscore the importance of precision in mathematical language, as well as the privileged meaning of some words and phrases in mathematics

• Knowledge of how to interpret gestures and other non-verbal modes of expressing mathematical thinking

Page 23: Mathematics Teachers Teaching English Language Learners: What Knowledge Do They Need?

What Knowledge is Needed?

• How to assess and interpret oral and written mathematical work by ELLs, to see both evidence of mathematical thinking and evidence related to academic language development.

• Mathematical tools—e.g., technology, manipulatives, symbolic representations—for supporting ELLs in mathematical investigations and communication of their thinking