Math for ELLs

“Hampton and welcome to my channel I want to let you know that I have over 20 years of working as an English language development specialist as well as an English language coordinator and over the years I have collected all of the top game strategies resources and tips to help you with the English language learners in your classroom please make sure to hit the subscribe button and the notification bill so you don't miss a Wednesday video pre teaching the math vocabulary that students are going to see in a word problem is so paramount because we cannot assume that students are going to understand even the most basic terms in the context of the word problem class for today's assignment what I want you to do is to construct a table and create an X and y axis so that you can demonstrate what you know about what's happening in this word problem an effective methodology and helping your students with vocabulary is pre teaching the vocabulary word but even before you teach it to them I recommend having them rate their knowledge on a scale of one to five one being that they've never heard this word before out of five they know what this word means and they can apply it in context and then teaching them the vocabulary word whether is by showing them the picture or showing a video or bringing real-life objects so they can see the concept of the meaning of the word in an applicable way and then having them go back into their notebook or their piece of paper and then rating themselves again to see if the way that you showed them if worked and if it increased their knowledge of that particular vocabulary word don't be afraid in having your students reread over and over and over again a word problem I think as teachers we have a little bit of a fear of slowing down the lesson because we're constantly on a time crunch and we feel like we have to get to the end of the lesson but it's better to go deeper into the lesson then trying to cover so much and then our students walking away not really understanding the concepts so I highly recommend going over and over and then isolating those parts of the word problem that the students are not understanding and then you can then laser in and focus more on those areas math word problems are loaded with information and there's so much vocabulary and our students are expected to understand every single vocabulary word but then how when we group those words together what it means and how one vocabulary word or one phrase can actually propel and change the meaning of where the word problem is going and they have to decide what function that they're going to use not only is what the problem is asking them but are they're going to divide are they going to multiply add subtract do they have to create a table do they have to find a ratio and the list goes on and I think what really has helped my students is to have a specific strategy or step in order to attack a problem and one of the very effective strategies that I have found is called the cube strategy and after explicitly teaching your students how to use the cube strategy then they're able to internalize it and use it more independently and it is a great way for your students to break down a math problem into more digestible bits apply it and be able to test it out and then they have a reference to go back if they feel like they have missed a stepped when they get an answer wrong for your students who are kinesthetic and visual learners I highly recommend having them act out the math word problem because not only does it make it more realistic and applicable to real life it actually slows down their thinking because they have to really isolate and pay attention to the from parts of the word problem okay so here's a math problem we have to solve how many handshakes will occur if 25 people have to hand shake each other I don't know but that's a lot of hand washing if you ask me and work problems like this you can have students actively shake each other's hands or you can use counters to figure out how many handshakes were given have you use any of these strategies so far in your classroom before if you have please make sure to comment in the comment section below and if not please make sure to comment which ones you would like to try when I taught elementary school to English language learners many years ago I always have my students using counting bears or cues blocks and so many different concrete manipulatives to help them to conceptualize a very abstract concept but there's no reason why secondary students cannot have the same access to materials as well especially if they're english-language learners so what it's really nice about these manipulatives is that if they're working on a math problem and it seems like it's not working out for them they can then go back to their manipulatives rearrange them so that they can try different strategy to see if they will arrive at a result that adequately answers a math problem that they're working on drawing out a math problem is a wonderful skill to have your students do whether they're newcomers beginners or students who are in advanced levels of proficiency of English and what's really nice is because they're taking what they're reading on paper and translating into a comprehensible concept that they can apply in order to solve something and it's really nice is that it gets them to think in a mathematical way and it's a great fallback strategy when mental math or other types of strategies are not working for them customarily when I start any unit or lesson I start with an exemplar and I go over that example and I break it down into different digestible bits and go over each component and then once they've internalized it then I have them be involved in a guided practice where then they'll copy it and write it in their notebooks and that way it's a reference point that they can come to time and time again when they solve similar problem that way they have a model in front of them because oftentimes with math problems it's there's so many different steps to it and it's nice to have some type of anchor text to go back to so that they know that if they run into a snag they can refer to that exemplar problem and hopefully be able to solve the new problem on their own here's an amazing book that will help you understand your students learning of math so that you will not only raise their expertise but also increase their understanding of the language of math concepción Molina also provides practical steps in helping you to teach math in this compelling book math for ELLs by Jim Ewing we're not he not only spells all different strategies that you can use for ELLs but he also provides guidance to help your else think more positively about math and growth mindset he also provides templates from math games to talking with parents about their child's growth in math if you have students in grades 4 through 9 this is a great tool because it not only has the definition for all the math topics that students will be learning but it also provides an explicit breakdown of math problems and applications of important math terms then for students who are in middle school here are some simple and ready-made math games to help reinforce the concepts that you are teaching in class thank you so much for taking time out of your day to watch my video as you have many choices to watch when it comes to topics surrounding English language learners but if you like this video I appreciate your feedback by hitting the like button and sharing with your colleagues and if you're looking for more tips strategies resources games make sure to check out this video and all the other videos on my channel and I can't wait to see you next week for more tips strategies resources and games for the students in your class”