Throughout the country there are students who do not speak English as their first language. When they enter school they are already at a disadvantage because they are having the learn a second language, and learn the academic content in the second language as well. This makes it difficult for the students to perform proficiently in math throughout their school career. Each year, as their English language grows, their English only classmates are accessing much more of the math curriculum. As a result, the English Learners fall behind and struggle to catch up. This problem occurs at a national level in many states. There are some states, such as California, where there is a larger percentage of students who are English Language Learners. The performance gap is evident in California. Here in Napa, there is a significant percentage of students who are English Language Learners. Teachers are constantly looking for ways to support the English Language Learners to help them achieve at grade level throughout their academic career. In the research articles I am seeing a common theme of emphasis on language in Mathematics and really being intentional with how language is introduced, reviewed, and used in a math classroom.
3 Comments
Ryan
10/2/2019 12:23:49 am
Hi Kathy,
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Melissa Newman
10/2/2019 02:17:26 pm
Hi Kathy, I couldn't agree more! This is also why I chose a research topic concerning my EL students.
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Krista Loper
10/23/2019 11:42:08 am
I could not imagine being an EL student and having to learn a new language while learning content. Like you said "When they enter school they are already at a disadvantage because they are having the learn a second language, and learn the academic content in the second language as well." We, as teachers need to find ways to help them succeed even with the big disadvantge they have
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AuthorKathy Martin is an educator in Napa, Ca. She has taught all ages, K-8, in her past 14 years of teaching. She looks forward to exploring more about the world of education. Archives
October 2019
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