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"Math is inquiry, reasoning, and interacting. By creating opportunities for discourse, and providing language supports, teachers deepen student understanding and build language." (Zoeller, 2016)

This blog post includes some concrete ideas and resources for future/current bilingual educators!

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Language and literacy need not live in isolation. Last year, teachers at my school worked on building academic conversations among our students. We were excited to learn about how math presented many opportunities to do just that, and in the target language! In this post, I will share some strategies for encouraging the target language in math through discussion and collaboration. Throughout, I'll share how explicit attention to language and language supports set students up for success.
1) Create an environment of inquiry, reasoning, and discourse.
Teachers and I quickly realized that getting kids talking in math required lots of intentional practices on the part of the teacher, in planning and in the moment. We began to look at our teacher talk moves and the role of questioning. We also worked on using student thinking to move discussions forward. We studied a Math Solutions article How to Get Students Talking! Generating Math Talk that Supports Math Learning . (LA de Garcia). We also studied Oakland Unified School District has work: Engaging in Productive Struggle :Number Talks .
2) Collaborative tasks, in all that we do!
As part of our school improvement work, our staff participated in a book study on Pauline Gibbons' Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning (2014). We found that many of the collaborative activities described in the book were perfect for math. One popular strategy was "give one to get one", in which a student does his/her own thinking and then needs to share his/her thinking with 5 friends (signature required!). Another activity teachers liked were barrier games. Students get in partners and take turns trying to guess each other's image. The student describing is not allowed to use some key terms listed on the image.

3) Teach compatible language, not just math-specific vocabulary.
4) Contextualize the learning
In observing students share their strategies for solving math story problems, it became apparent that they needed the language for explaining their thinking process. Cheryl Urow writes about this phenomenon in her article, "¡Habla español, por favor!" : Using Math to Promote Use of the Non-English Language . Urow writes that in addition to learning terms like "unidades", "decenas", and "centenas", students needed the interactional language in order to engage in the math task. She modeled through a fishbowl, provided guided practice, and created supportive language frames. To make these visual aids most accessible, many teachers are moving towards table tents, placemats, or in-the-hand / in-the-notebook versions of the frames posted on chart paper.
5) Bridge vocabulary
I know we know this already....but keep reading anyway! Teaching for Biliteracy proposes numerous ways for content to come alive. In math, a promising practice for students to comprehend the context of a story problem is through math theatre. See Bringing Content and Language to Life Through Theater: Part II - Math Another way to make math relevant and comprehensible is through the use of graphs. In my math class, I begin with a survey of a hot topic, have students place their vote, and then pose an open ended question of "Que notas?" with some frames to support. The graph content can lend itself to articulating one's stance with reasons, listening to classmates, and changing thinking. I snap a photo of each graph, slip on a sheet protector, and collect the artifacts in "Let's Talk About It" books.

Finally, let's not forget the importance of teaching for transfer of math language. This was particularly obvious to me at the dinner table last week when my third grader exclaimed "3, 5, 7...I love impair numbers!". My second grade daughter has also been prone to articulating a subtraction fact as "7 rest 4 equals 3". While it's great that language doesn't interfere with their conceptual understanding, there is little reason to bridge math vocabulary along the way! The below bridge chart is from another TfB blog post Sharing our biliteracy practices with others.

Math is inquiry, reasoning, and interacting. By creating opportunities for discourse, and providing language supports, teachers deepen student understanding build language. Math teaching for biliteracy and bilingualism, if we want it to be!

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Language & Literacy in Math | Teaching For Biliteracy

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Language and literacy need not live in isolation. Last year, teachers at my school worked on building academic conversations among our students. We were excited to learn about how math presented many opportunities to do just that, and in the target language!

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10 ways to help ELL Succeed in Math! (Tips provided from teachers!)

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10 ways to help ELL Succeed in Math! (Tips provided from teachers!)

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" Unlike most English- speaking students, ELLs have the task of learning a second language and learning content simultaneously. Contrary to popular assumption, language plays a critical role not just in reading and writing, but in learning mathematics as well."

"Relate a concept to a personal experience a student has had in the past; that way they will have a greater chance of understanding the information taught. Try to introduce a concept by relating it to something from their country. For example, I have a student who came from Holland and I always ask her what they call a certain word in Dutch." -Pat Roth

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Matt Ford, previous Program Director of Literacy NJ.  He briefly discusses what the nonprofit has been able to do since the pandemic hit. Due to Matt being a full-time Grad student, working full time plus the time difference between NJ and Alaska (where Matt currently lives,) I was unable to personally ask him questions.

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Matt Ford - Literacy New Jersey | An important message from Matt Ford, Program Director for Literacy New Jersey, another United Way Community Partner.

PLEASE DONATE what you can to our... | By United Way of Gloucester County | Facebook

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225 views, 7 likes, 4 loves, 2 comments, 3 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from United Way of Gloucester County: An important message from Matt Ford, Program Director for Literacy New Jersey, another...

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"Literacy New Jersey provides free instruction to adults who need help with reading, writing, math and speaking English."

A close family friend of mine was the Program Director for this nonprofit! I've attached one of the videos he's made while holding that role. He is currently studying Applied Linguistics at the University of Fairbanks! ( Yes he lives on campus too! He has no plans on coming home back to Sewell, NJ anytime soon. What a change!)

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A statewide network helping adults change their lives through literacy | Literacy New Jersey

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Taylor Dragani, Preschool teacher w/bilingual students.

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“By incorporating the Russian language to the best of my ability in the classroom, I am meeting Masha at her level. She quickly became comfortable at school again.”

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A journal entry based on a Bilingual Education teacher that landed a job shortly after graduation in Honduras with BECA (Bilingual Education for Central America.) "I really think the kids and their families have done so much more for me. Many of the things in my life now I know I owe to them." (Doyle, 2022)

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I was 22 the first time I landed in Honduras. I had just graduated from college, and teaching for BECA was my first full-time job that wasn't on-campus or at a fast food restaurant. Throughout the month of July, I tried to prepare myself for the first day of school through BECA's Summer Training Institute. I planned units, sorted math manipulatives, and created posters (and laboriously "laminated" them using contact paper), but nothing could have truly prepared me for the first day of preschool (which is somewhat confusingly called kinder in Honduras) with my 22 students who had never been to school before, and on top of that, they're teacher was a gringa who only spoke to them in English.

I remember a lot of tears keeping the door shut since one student kept trying to run away, out of the classroom, through the portón, and to home. I will never forget one student, Daniela Santos , ripping out the gold hoop earrings her mom had put on her for her first day of school and throwing them underneath the furniture in frustration. When her mom came to pick her up that first day, we searched everywhere, but we never found those earrings. Nine years later, I remember all those things - Norma quietly crying throughout the day, Jenny completely at ease, Marcos Antonio asking every few minutes, " ¿ Ya nos vamos?"- but I don't remember a single thing I taught.

I stayed in that classroom with those same kids, plus three new students who joined us for Prepa (kindergarten), for two years. I watched them grow and learn in so many areas, and I never got over hearing them surprise me with their growing English skills because I always remembered where they started. One day, out of the blue, Cesia started responding to all questions with, "Yeah," which I'm fairly certain I had never said in class. We learned about colors, all the letters of the alphabet, science, and how to count to 20. We also took time each week to do a social-emotional circle and check in our classroom community. I'm still a kindergarten teacher to this day, and I love seeing the progress of how much students learn throughout the year and comparing those first few weeks with the end of the year.

One of BECA's mottos is "We teach the kids. They teach us." That was my experience and continues to be every time I visit Cofradia. My students taught me a lot of new Spanish vocabulary, like "I have to pee now" and "I just peed my pants." Their families shared their culture with me every time I visited their houses, and I learned how to make tortillas (though I never mastered the skill), how to tell when a plantain is verde or maduro, and how to charge my phone with saldo. From my Honduran coworkers, I learned the history of Honduras, the important figures on lempira bills, and most of the words of the national anthem. I also learned a lot about myself: how small I am in the world, that I need alone time to recharge (especially after working all day and cooking, eating, and socializing with the same 25 people everyday). I learned that my government's involvement with other countries is often negative. I learned that I do actually like beans and a vegetable I've only ever eaten in Honduras called pataste. I learned how to feel hopeful when things in the world feel bleak.

Whenever I visit Honduras now and a family offers me a giant home cooked meal or insists on taking me out to San Pedro for pizza, I always try to push back, help out, or chip in, but I'm always met with something like, "We don't mind, you've done so much for our kids." But I really think the kids and their families have done so much more for me. Many of the things in my life now I know I owe to them. The experiences in Honduras I wrote about in my personal statement helped me get into grad school after leaving in 2015. The Spanish fluency I developed after being immersed for two years is at the top of my resume. In job interviews, I always bring up my experience in Honduras, the things I learned, and the skills I developed. I got hired at my current job after getting connected with another BECA teacher, Nikki, who worked there, and the passion I feel for working in early childhood education was born and rooted during my time at San Jeronimo Bilingual School. I owe so much to those I met in Honduras, especially the students and their families who invited me over for birthday parties, let me crash on their hammock, or took me to a weekend in the mountains. It's something for which I'm eternally grateful and know that I'll never be able to adequately express how much it means to me.

Before leaving Honduras in 2015, I promised myself and my students that I'd visit at least once a year, every year, until they graduated from SJBS. Selfishly, I didn't want them to forget me by the time their 9th grade clausura came around, but I also wanted to show them and their families that I wasn't going to forget them either. I wanted to show them that they continue to be a part of my life and that my relationships with them are so valuable to me. I kept my promise to return every year through 2020, and then I wasn't able to visit again until this summer 2022. During the two years that I didn't see them, my former kinder and prepa babies turned into teenagers with mustaches, crushes, and obsessions with BTS. But their personalities stayed the same, and the time I spent hanging out with them at Tony's Pizza and Cafe Cusuco (a place I wish we had when I lived in Cofradia!) felt just the same as eating baleadas together during morning recess or watercoloring during art class while Prince Royce or Frozen played in the background. Those kids will always be my babies, no matter how grandecito they get.

Even though everyone claimed to have no memories of Kinder or Prepa, aside from Cesia consistently bringing up the one time I had dismissal in the classroom because Prepa was too chatty to go to the auditorium, the memories I have of those two years haven't faded. Reminiscing over old pictures on my phone together, I still distinctly remember the day Salomon painted his hand purple and then put it right on top of his face. I still remember Julio's pet rock, aptly named Rocky. I will always remember the two months Daniela pretended to be a dog and responded to everything with barks. And now I have new memories to hold on to and treasure, like Julio asking me, " ¿ How do you say cringe in English?" or seeing Jaime for the first time since 2015 and instantly recognizing him across the parque.

On my resume or in job interviews or when people ask me how I learned Spanish, I respond that I taught in Honduras for two years. That's true, but not the whole picture. For two years I learned in Honduras and thanks to the community of people I love that still live there, I continue to learn each and every time I get to see them.

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I Taught Them, They Taught Me by Raven Hayes

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I was 22 the first time I landed in Honduras. I had just graduated from college, and teaching for BECA was my first full-time job that wasn't on-campus or at a fast food restaurant. Throughout the month of July, I tried to prepare myself for

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Twitter thread for math strategies!

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What are some strategies for developing emergent bilinguals' math mindsets? #ellchat #ELLs #mathchat #elemmathchat

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What are some strategies for developing emergent bilinguals' math mindsets? #ellchat #ELLs #mathchat #elemmathchat

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What are some strategies for developing emergent bilinguals' math mindsets? #ellchat #ELLs #mathchat #elemmathchat
— Jim Ewing He/him/his (@EwingLearning) October 7, 2018

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What are some strategies for developing emergent bilinguals' math mindsets? #ellchat #ELLs #mathchat #elemmathchat

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What are some strategies for developing emergent bilinguals' math mindsets? #ellchat #ELLs #mathchat #elemmathchat

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What are some strategies for developing emergent bilinguals' math mindsets? #ellchat #ELLs #mathchat #elemmathchat

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Definitely going to bookmark her YT channel & keep as a resource!

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Math Instruction for English Language Learners

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My dad gave me one dollar bill’Cause I’m his smartest son,And I swapped it for two shiny quarters’Cause two is more than one!— Excerpt from “Smart,” by Shel SilversteinAs a student, I struggled with math. I didn’t understand why it came so naturally to some students, but not to me. Looking back, how…

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"A class that collectively speaks multiple languages is a cultural gold mine! (Blankman, 2021)

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Mathematics is sometimes regarded as a "universal language," as it is grounded in abstract concepts such as numbers and shapes. And there is some truth to that! After all, two people who speak different languages may still be able to solve the same math problem and get the same solution. However, language is nevertheless essential for teaching math, as mathematics is inextricably linked to the language in which it is taught.

Proficiency in any language relies on two factors: language comprehension and language production. When it comes to teaching math to ELL students, we can look closely across lessons and consider, "What is the language load at this moment? Comprehension or production?" Then we can leverage targeted strategies to promote academic language development while also deepening mathematical understanding.

Students learning English carry a different cognitive load when they are also learning mathematics. What follows are ELL strategies for math that lighten the students' cognitive load so that they can show mathematical understanding while you maintain rigor in the lesson.

A note on language: we employ the common phrase English language learner, along with the acronym ELL, but we also recognize that this is imperfect nomenclature. Students who are learning English do not fit neatly into a single label.

ELL Strategies for Math: Language Comprehension

1: Use Routines That Break Down Word Problems

Word problems present an especially tough problem to students learning English. They're hard enough for students who are further along in their English language development! Word problems demand that the reader parse plenty of non-mathematical vocabulary such as names, objects, jobs, and places.

Mathematics instruction will always include word problems, as that is how to articulate complex mathematical situations. Strategies like Three Reads, Stronger and Clearer Each Time, and Compare and Connect help break down the context of a problem and guide students in focusing on one aspect of the language at a time.

2: Focus on Mathematical Vocabulary

Learning mathematics is so much more than learning mathematical vocabulary. Spend time on the words.

For multilingual learners, vocabulary can sometimes be an entryway into the math. Students may have existing notions about words such as product, times, and one, for example, and by discussing them, you are connecting about ideas on both language and mathematics. Your students will help you learn other languages as you help them learn math, a symbiotic relationship.

Provide vocabulary instruction upfront both for mathematical vocabulary and non-mathematical vocabulary that appears in word problems students will confront in the lesson. Vocabulary instruction involves more than just reviewing definitions. It can include playing vocabulary games, reading math readers, and using tools such as word banks.

What would engage your students, regardless of language? Think about what sports they play, music they listen to, TV shows they watch, food they eat, or holidays they celebrate (to name a few). If you can draw on your students' cultural knowledge, you can open paths to engage them even when language serves as a temporary barrier.

Look for ways to modify contexts of word problems and possible bridges between math that they understand and the content you're trying to teach. Position your students as mathematically competent regardless of how well they can articulate their reasoning in English. If you can, let them make up their own word problems! Then you learn more about what is familiar to them.

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7 Strategies for Teaching Math to Students Who Are Learning English

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These ELL strategies for math instruction will help you with teaching math to English language learners and supporting math learning for multilingual students.