Language is deeply involved in learning mathematics as students both communicate and think about their mathematical ideas. For all students—and English learners in particular—access means finding effective, authentic ways to make language clear and thinking visible so they can reason more, speak more, and write more in mathematics.
In today’s clip, Mark Driscoll and Jill Neumayer DePiper, two of the authors of Mathematical Thinking and Communication, talk about considerations when adapting, using, and evaluating math tasks with English learners such as:
- thoughtfully evaluating the amount of language included in tasks
- shifting our perspective to look for student’s strengths
- developing a better understanding of student thinking through rich tasks.
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Mark Driscoll, Johannah Nikula, and Jill Neumayer DePiper work in the Learning and Teaching Division at Education Development Center (EDC) in Massachusetts, a non-profit organization that designs, implements, and evaluates programs to improve education, health, and economic opportunity worldwide. They have decades of experience creating and studying professional development resources and training for mathematics teachers, with a particular focus on strategies to support the academic success of English learners.