Differentiating Instruction:

Building Mathematical Academic Language Skills for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

Granite School District

Charlene LuiLauna HarveySara Moore

District Video

Objectives

Content

Learners will become more knowledgeable regarding the necessity to focus on academic language for English Learners (ELs) with the Mathematics Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

Language

Learners will :

› listen to and discuss academic language

› create differentiated math tasks using the WiDA Model Performance Indicators

› participate in 3 mathematical instructional strategies

Mathematics Instruction for ELs

What do English Learners need in the Mathematics classrooms? (Moschkovich)

1. Teachers who are prepared to teach math for understanding

2. Participate in mathematical discussions as they learn English

3. Treat everyday language as resource, not as an obstacle

4. Focus on mathematical practices, not “language” as vocabulary, single words, grammar, or a list of definitions

5. Focus on student’s mathematical reasoning, not accuracy in using language

Academic Language in Diverse Classrooms Margo Gottlieb and Gisela Ernst-Slavit

WIDA

Academic Language

› Used for specific purpose and audience in a particular context

› Used in schools to acquire a new or deeper understanding of the content and to communicate that understanding to others

› Increases in complexity from grade to grade and year to year

› For ELs, increasing horizontally from one language proficiency level to the next

1 2 3 4 5 60

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12Academic Language for ELs

Proficiency Level

Gra

de L

evel

Juanita

Juan

Academic Language for ELs

English Language Development instruction ensures that:

› ELs attain English to high levels of proficiency enabling them to meet the same state academic Core Standards as all students are expected to meet.

› Students meet both English Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency Skills (CALPS) as well as Social Basic Interpersonal Cognitive Skills (BICS).

› ELD is a daily 45-minute block of time providing explicit language instruction targeted in each language domain: reading, writing, speaking, and listening (Genesee, Lindholm-Leary, Saunders & Christian, 2006)

WIDA’s English Language Development Standards

Social & Instructional Language

Language of

Language Arts

Language of

Mathematics

Language of Science

Language of Social Studies

Academic Language

Standard 1 Standard 2 Standard 3 Standard 4 Standard 5

Standards for Mathematical Practice

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics.

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

www.mrsliretteslearningdetectives.com

› Both Gotlieb & Muschovich suggest focusing on mathematical practice for ELs

Model 4th Grade Math Lesson

Content Objective: I can

Model 3rd Grade Math Lesson

› Brownie recipe

Proficiency Levels

English Language Proficiency Levels

Entering (Pre-Emergent)

Beginning (Emergent)

Developing (Intermediate)

Expanding (Advanced)

Bridging (Fluent)(2 year monitor)

5

32

1

4

Change Chart to proficiency levels Bloom’s

Creatingdebate, speculate,

rank, document Evaluating

construct, synthesize, infer, invent

Analyzinganalyze, appraise, distinguish,

predict

Applyingapply, solve, demonstrate, build

Understandingcategorize, expand, restate, outline

Rememberingchoose, point, find, copy, list, recite

Student Supports

Using WIDA to Differentiate Instruction

Language

Function

Content Stem

Student Support

Model Performa

nce Indicator

Using WIDA to Differentiate Instruction

I can

Language

Function

Content Stem

Student Support

Model Performa

nce Indicator

division problemswith a partner using

models.

Identify and solve

Learning Task 4: Using WIDA MPIsStep 1: As a group, create 2 differentiated learning tasks using listening, speaking, reading, and writing for proficiency levels 1 and 4

Step 2: Share “What ways were tasks differentiated for the two levels?”

Add wida proficiency chart

Anchor Charts

Do-Talk-Record

Sentence Frames

Can Do

› Check the text below for slide information

3 Questions to consider› Is student activity focused on high cognitive

demand, conceptual understanding, connecting multiple representations, and communicating student reasoning?

› Does student activity focus on language as a resource for reasoning, sense making, and communicating mathematical ideas?

› Are students being prepared to deal with typical mathematics texts?

Dimensions of Academic LanguageAcademic Language

General Areas of Coverage

Discourse Level

• Text Type• Genres• Voice/Perspective• Cohesion across sentences• Coherence of ideas• Organization of text or speech• Transitions of though

Sentence Level • Types of sentences-simple, compound, complex, compound-complex

• Types of clauses-relative, coordinate, embedded

• Prepositional phrases• Syntax (forms and grammatical

structures)

Word/Phrase Level

• Vocabulary-general, specialized, technical academic words and expressions

• Multiple meanings of words• Nominalizations• Idiomatic expressions• Metaphors• Double entendres

Dimensions of Academic LanguageAcademic Language

General Areas of Coverage Mathematic Text Type: Recipes

Discourse Level

• Text Type• Genres• Voice/Perspective• Cohesion across sentences• Coherence of ideas• Organization of text or speech• Transitions of though

Directions for a recipe

Sentence Level • Types of sentences-simple, compound, complex, compound-complex

• Types of clauses-relative, coordinate, embedded

• Prepositional phrases• Syntax (forms and grammatical

structures)

Imperative verbs: preheat, combine, mixSequential language: first, second, then, next, later, finally

Word/Phrase Level

• Vocabulary-general, specialized, technical academic words and expressions

• Multiple meanings of words• Nominalizations• Idiomatic expressions• Metaphors• Double entendres

• Recipe• Ingredients• Measuring cup• Utensils• One-half cup• Double• Half• Teaspoon