Education Week - November 12, 2014 - Special Report - S12

S12 |
EDUCATION WEEK n
November 12, 2014
Making Sense of the Math: The Common Core in Practice > www.edweek.org/go/math-report
Math Standards Put New
Focus on English-Learners
Language demands heightened
By Anthony Rebora
W
hen he began working the Common Core
State Standards into his instruction three
years ago, New York City middle school mathematics
teacher Silvestre Arcos noticed that
his English-language-learner students were
showing less progress on unit assessments
than his other students.
"It wasn't necessarily because they didn't have the numeracy
skills," recalled Mr. Arcos, who is now a math instructional coach
and the 7th grade lead teacher at kipp Washington Heights Middle
School, a charter school in New York. Rather, they were struggling
with the linguistic demands of his new curriculum, which was oriented
heavily toward word problems and explication of solutions.
To address the issue, Mr. Arcos began incorporating strategies
that are typically the province of language arts teachers into his
math lessons. Especially when working with his English-learners,
he provided detailed instruction in close reading, sentence annotation,
and writing fluency.
He also redoubled his efforts to ensure that his lessons had
specific language objectives-to help students grasp important
terminology, for example-as well as content objectives, a practice
he had learned in graduate school.
To help his English-learners adapt to the aims of the new
standards, said Mr. Arcos, "it was important for us to develop
their language skills."
Mr. Arcos' recognition that the new math standards may require
greater attention to the needs of English-language learners is not
uncommon among educators who work with such students. Particularly
in the Standards for Mathematical Practice that preface
and inform the grade-level objectives, the common core emphasizes
the importance of explaining solutions and relationships, constructing
arguments, and critiquing the reasoning of others. While such
expectations are proving difficult for many students, educators say,
they pose unique challenges for those not fully proficient in English.
In that light, experts in math instruction for English-learners
tend to view schools' adoption of the common core in math with a
mixture of hope and apprehension.
On the one hand, the standards are "pushing math teachers to
think about the language we use ... [and] support English-learners
at different levels," said Anita Bright, an assistant professor in
the graduate school of education at Portland State University, in
Oregon, who specializes in multilingual education.
In addition, the common core's emphasis on verbal expression
and reasoning in math are widely seen as beneficial to Englishlearners.
"The more language you use in the math classes, the
more [ell] students are going to learn, both in math and language,"
said Judit N. Moschkovich, a professor of mathematics
education at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
What concerns experts, however, is that many teachers might
not have the curricular resources or training needed to address
language development in connection with math instruction.
"Language hasn't traditionally played much of a role in the trainPAGE
S15 >
Photos by
Mark Abramson
for Education Week
Teacher Silvestre Arcos works
with 6th graders at KIPP
Washington Heights Middle
School in New York. To help
English-learners, Mr. Arcos
integrates language development
into his math lessons.
http://www.edweek.org/go/math-report
Education Week - November 12, 2014 - Special Report

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