Supporting Preservice Teachers in Meeting the Needs of Linguistically Diverse Students Cathy J Kinzer [e-mail] Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Ninth Annual Meeting

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Supporting Preservice Teachers in Meeting the
Needs of Linguistically Diverse StudentsCathy
J Kinzercakinzer_at_nmsu.eduAssociation of
Mathematics Teacher EducatorsNinth Annual Meeting
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New Mexico State University

• Hispanic Serving Institution established in 1888
• (63 ) Hispanic in Dona Ana County
• Language other than English spoken at home 54
  (census.gov)
• 42 of the student population at NMSU is Hispanic
  
• Over 50 of students in our TEP are Hispanic

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Hispanics in US Education

• Hispanic enrollment has tripled in the last 25
  years
• English Language Learners (ELLs) have higher
  dropout rates and demonstrate significant
  achievement gaps in state tests (Snow
  Biancarosa, 2003)
• Hispanic dropout rates increased from 22 to 34
  from 1990 to 2000
• Between 1990 and 2000 the number of ELL students
  rose from 2.1 million to 3.7 million

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Teachers/ELL Students

• Nationwide, approximately less than 3 of
  teachers who instruct ELL possess a degree in ESL
  or bilingual education (NCES,1997)
• Of the 41 of teachers teaching ELLs only 12.5
  have eight or more hours of PD related to ELLs
  over 3 years

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• There is one teacher certified in ESL for every
  44 ELL students (NCES survey, 2001)
• - 27 of teachers of ELLs felt very well
  prepared to teach ELLs
• 60 felt somewhat or moderately prepared
• 12 feeling not prepared at all

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• NMs Achievement Gap
• An achievement gap in mathematics exists in New
  Mexico (NAEP, 2003)
• White students had a average score that was
  higher than that of Hispanics by 28 NAEP scale
  score points for grade 8 and 20 points for grade
  4 (NCES, 2004)
• In NM 20.6 of our students receive ELL services

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Preservice Teachers in NM

• Preservice teachers have expressed concerns about
  meeting the needs of diverse learners
• Hispanic preservice teachers often report that
  their struggles in mathematics were compounded by
  their lack of fluency in English

• Many of my Preservice teachers are Hisp

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Whats Needed

• Teachers need specific preparation in working
  with English Language Learners in mathematics
• As educators we have been working to support
  preservice teachers in meeting the needs of
  linguistically diverse students

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What do you do in your mathematics methods
courses to support preservice teachers in meeting
the needs of linguistically diverse learners?
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Considerations for Math Methods Courses

• Developing academic and social languages within
  the context of mathematics
• Incorporating instructional techniques that help
  students in understanding content
• Including models (like Sheltered Instruction
  Observation Protocol) to support
  language/academic development
• Becoming more aware of
• thinking about academic language and vocabulary
  demands,
• including ways for students to communicate and
  interact with peers,
• building from prior knowledge, contexts, and
  experiences in a language rich supportive
  learning environment
• providing feedback and ongoing support for
  students

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• Building content and pedagogy through engaging
  mathematical tasks
• Developing norms and building a culture of
  inquiry for examining beliefs and knowledge of
  math teaching and learning
• Connecting to prior learning experiences and
  resources that preservice teachers bring to the
  methods courses and yet examining new
  possibilities

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Our building blocks

• Teachers sharing their personal math stories
• Focused Classroom Observations in PD schools
• Writing about supporting diverse learners
  (pre/post)
• Modeling, discussing, and engaging in math
  activities to think about specifying content and
  language objectives, building from prior learning
  and experiences, ways to make the concepts and
  vocabulary more clear and comprehensible, and
  opportunities for interaction

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Other practices

• Developing units/plans that include instructional
  considerations for supporting diverse learners
• Teaching methods courses in Spanish
• - Math curriculum materials written in English
  and Spanish (pscott_at_nmsu.edu)
• Reading articles and using resources to build
  content knowledge about supporting ELLs
• Some preservice teachers have participated in
  lesson study at a dual language school

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Primary Focus on 3 strategies to support ELLs

• Building Background
• Comprehensible Input
• Opportunities for Interaction

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Building Background

• Connecting existing ideas to new ideas
• Concepts explicit and linked to students
  background experiences
• Academic vocabulary emphasized

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Teacher/Student Interactions

• Frequent opportunities for interaction and
  discussion between teacher/student and among
  students that encourage elaborated responses
  about the lesson concepts
• Mixed ability groupings (language and math)
• Purposeful cooperative learning activities

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Comprehensible Input

• Speech that is appropriate for students
  proficiency level
• Clear explanation of academic tasks
• A variety of techniques/tools used to make
  content /concepts explicit

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Students writing pre/post

• Students were ask to reflect on these 4
  questions
• What does it mean to you as an educator to meet
  the needs of diverse learners in mathematics?
• What strategies/tools could you use to support
  diverse learners in mathematics?
• What does equity in mathematics mean to you?
• Why do you believe there is a significant
  achievement gap between Whites and other ethnic
  groups like Hispanics, Native Americans, and
  African Americans in NM?

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Preservice teacher growth in responses

• Pre Strategies one could use would be relating
  math to real life situations like going to the
  store and buying candy etc.
• Post I will include cooperative learning,
  visuals
• (such as charts ,diagrams, graphic organizers),
  repetition, providing feedback, and time for
  practice. I will provide time for students to
  explore and be active learners in investigating
  math concepts. I will incorporate writing and
  questioning, including math journals

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• Pre Some strategies to support second language
  learners could be like scaffolding and
  repetition. There are ways one can adapt lessons
  and activities to accommodate all learners
• Post I plan to work hard to create a safe haven
  where students feel secure valued and respected.
  I know my students will come from diverse
  backgrounds but to me that will make my classroom
  much more interesting and enjoyable. Students
  will gain understanding and knowledge from
  various cultures and perspectives. My lessons
  will be modified for English Language Learners. I
  plan to shelter my instruction using the SIOP
  model, in order to reach each and every ELL and
  individual student in the classroom. In my daily
  lessons and instruction I will use scaffolding,
  repetition, modeling and activities that engage
  ELL students in communication skills with
  monolingual English speakers. In order to do this
  I know I must activate prior knowledge which
  students already come to the classroom with and
  use it to further their learning. I will allow
  students opportunities to communicate in small
  groups and whole class. I have learned how the
  process of inquiry in mathematics allows students
  to devise different ways to solve problems and
  engage in higher order thinking skills. I was
  once an ELL and I know when someone values me as
  a learner. If they do I will listen and learn.

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• Pre Bring parts of their own language into the
  classroom activities so they feel more
  comfortable and the rest of the class is learning
  something new
• Post Some strategies that can be used to support
  diverse learners are to use both linguistic and
  non-linguistic representations incorporate
  cooperative learning into the classroom, set
  objectives and use questioning and cues. When
  incorporating nonlinguistic representations we
  will use visual tools and manipulatives,
  diagrams, concept maps and drawings to provide
  opportunities for students who cant express
  themselves in English to use these tools to
  express their understanding of the concept.
  Setting objectives allows the students to
  understand what the learning goals are and helps
  them take responsibility for their own learning
  and determine whether or not they met the goals
  for the math lesson. Questions and cues are
  important tools too because they allow students
  opportunities to think critically about the
  lesson and allows me insight into the next steps
  for learning.

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• Pre Strive to incorporate different methods of
  teaching for different learning styles like
  audiotapes in Spanish, Spanish handouts, Spanish
  manipulatives
• Post Instructional strategies could include
  identifying similarities and differences, using
  graphic organizers, and analogies. I will hold
  high expectations for students, display their
  work, praise students efforts to use English and
  encourage risk taking. I will value and build
  from students native language and cultural
  backgrounds. I will help student learn to reflect
  and summarize and break down math assignment to
  manageable parts.

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Post/ Student Reponses
n

• Supporting diverse learners in mathematics was a
  phrase I was unaware of at the beginning of the
  semester. I had thought about and planned for
  supporting diverse learners in language arts and
  social studies. I had never considered
  mathematics as a place where diversity was a
  factor.
• Soon into the semester I realized that
  throughout my math education I was an unsupported
  diverse learner. For one I was a girl, and so
  many times girls are told math is not their
  subject. Second, I am from a low income household
  in a Hispanic neighborhood and did not have the
  same opportunities or resources to learn as
  counterparts in other areas of town.
• Without the proper resources and expectations
  children will fail to flourish in their
  mathematical endeavors. In order to connect to
  our students as teachers we must take the
  problems off the chalkboards and put them in our
  own hands..

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• Teachers must understand the goals and objectives
  they should have for their students and how these
  link with content standards, as content standards
  alone do not address the specific needs of ELLs.
  When sheltering content instruction, teachers
  need to think about ways to support ELLs so they
  can be as successful as their English-speaking
  peers.
• Sheltering instruction can include the
  following defining both content and language
  objectives making sure content is age
  appropriate, incorporating supplementary
  materials like charts, graphs and visual aids,
  planning meaningful activities that integrate
  concepts with opportunities for students to
  practice and develop English, build background
  knowledge, emphasize vocabulary, provide
  comprehensible input, clearly explain tasks,
  scaffold instruction, consider appropriate
  groupings and conduct ongoing assessment in math.

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students math units

• Most of the suggestions for supporting diverse
  learners centered on the areas we focused on in
  class (promote productive student interactions,
  language, and vocabulary)
• Ex. Build background Students have opportunities
  to bring their background experiences and
  knowledge to bear on new content area topics.
  This can be done through whole class and small
  group brainstorming activities, including graphic
  organizers, semantic webs or lists. New
  vocabulary is introduced through the mathematics
  problems and tasks.
• Comprehensible Input Teachers will use a graphic
  organizer to represent students conceptions of
  division. Students will be also represent their
  ideas about division through speech, writing and
  illustrations
• Interactions Students will have opportunities to
  discuss division with peers and the teacher. A
  variety of questions will be used. This lesson
  will include whole group and small group
  interactions.

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Being part of the lesson study teams at dual
language schools

• Preservice Teachers at the dual language school
  reported on their experiences where they saw many
  of the strategies and supports for diverse
  learners through the lesson study process

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Next Steps

• Preservice teachers have introductory experiences
  in the methods courses in which they explore,
  discuss, and develop strategies for inclusive
  instructional practices in mathematics
• But
• We are continuing to think about how to provide
  opportunities for preservice teachers to support
  diverse learners in mathematics.
• Suggestions? Other ideas?
• To obtain this presentation please go to
  http//MC2.nmsu.edu
• Reference Echevarria, Vogt, Short, 2000. 
  Making Content Comprehensible for English
  Language Learners The SIOP Model.  Needham
  Heights, MA  Pearson Education Company.