5 Essential Learning Scaffolds to Increase English Learner Engagement in Math

There’s often an unspoken assumption among teachers that English learners “do better at math.” That math is “mostly numbers, less reading and writing, so students need less support.” It may be true that English learners (ELs) can thrive when it comes to fact memorization or mastery of a given operation. But we know that meaningful learning of math concepts involves so much more than that. To internalize and apply math practices, students need the ability to engage in active discourse. They need the language of math to do this. Without the support of learning scaffolds, our ELs can struggle.

 

As fully capable learners, ELs have the potential to enjoy our math instructional activities. They may have prior understanding they can tap into. They have the cognitive ability to question, reason, and collaborate. Yet we may find ELs disconnected from important activities in class. Learning scaffolds are the key to bringing English learners from disengaged to fully participating. 

 

 

What is Educational Scaffolding for English Learners?

The term learning scaffolds or educational scaffolding includes a wide array of teacher-curated strategies. These are employed temporarily to assist a learner in successfully doing a task that otherwise they would not be able to do. For English learners, we call these linguistic scaffolds, because the primary barriers they face have to do with language. 

 

Educational scaffolding may target our teaching presentation or materials. It may inform our plans for student grouping or assessment. When we use learning scaffolds during math instruction, we create a context for all of our learners to thrive. Keep reading to learn five effective math learning scaffolds. These are guaranteed to help you provide a more equitable math classroom! Try just one or two at a time, and watch your English learner engagement go up!

 

 

Use First Language as a Resource for Beginning English Learners

Our beginning English learners, who are often “newcomers” to our schools, come with many assets. Students come with a variety of educational backgrounds, cultural funds of knowledge, and abilities. They may have strong literacy skills in their first language. Newcomers may come with an existing foundation of math concepts, or very little exposure at all. The more we get to know and understand these students, the better we will understand the assets they bring. 

 

Use of students’ first language is an important learning scaffold for ELs in math. These students have a right to full access to learning. If they can understand math concepts and meet learning objectives in their first language, they should be permitted to utilize it as a resource. Of course, we are simultaneously and gradually teaching them English terms, as well. We can offer them daily opportunities to grow in their proficiency. Teaching cognates (words that are similar in both languages) is one way to increase students’ math vocabulary. 

 

For beginning English learners, we can begin with encouraging full translation through apps, websites, or video recorded instruction in their home language. Resources like Google Translate and Khan Academy are helpful for this. As students grow, we guide them to “graduate” to simplified text with occasional translation as a resource. Ultimately, they will become proficient in English and no longer need this scaffold on a regular basis. 

 

 

 

Provide Images of Math Concepts 

Visual support and images of math concepts can be a game-changer when it comes to English learners’ comprehension. When teaching math, we often work with images as visual representations of our thinking. We model for our students how to “show their work” and “draw a picture.” I would encourage you to go even beyond these practices, and look for those instances where your EL may hit a comprehension obstacle. It’s likely that anywhere and everywhere, adding images will help. 

 

You might include small images or sketches above key words in a word problem. When you present math terms on a word wall, word bank, or notes page, images could be added. Of course, graphic organizers are a great way to make learning visible and comprehensible. You could even pop some images into your lesson objectives on the board, to ensure full understanding of learning goals and key terms. 

 

 

 

Explicitly Teach the Language of Math

When students interact and reason through mathematical processes, they are using the language of math. The better they speak this language, the more fluid and comfortable will be their participation in essential discourse. 

 

Many teachers already provide structure and prompting through “math talk moves,” or “accountable talk” posters on the wall. These helpful tools give students prompts for speaking and writing about math. They include relevant academic terms and phrases that students are encouraged to draw from during discussion. 

 

For many English learners, an extra degree of learning scaffolds during math talk can help them grow in the language of math. Teachers should always explicitly teach any phrase or sentence stem to be used. Students will need to understand the meaning and use of these phrases. Modeling for students reinforces correct pronunciation, and clarifies when and how to use the phrases. Modeling a succession of “math moves” that are connected is important, also. This will provide a context and purpose for using the prompts. 

 

Lastly, teachers should aim for regular speaking practice opportunities. Lora Beth Escalante shares, “When English language learners come into a familiar environment in which they know what to expect, they feel more comfortable and are more willing to participate.” (Motivating ELLs) Math talk routines and whole-group discussions should grow to become safe places for ELs to take risks and practice the language of math. 

 

 

 

Provide Multiple Entry Points and Ways to Represent Reasoning

In any math lesson, we want to invite our students to discover varied approaches to problem solving. We encourage them to consider new ways of presenting, resolving, justifying, and explaining math concepts. This is the beauty of the mathematical process, and the reason we all benefit from collaboration and exploration. English learners may come to our classrooms having previously learned unique strategies. They may see a solution to a problem, but lack the language to verbalize their thinking. For these reasons, we should consider different ways ELs can connect to a new math problem. This may be through visual representation, acting out a scenario, including realia or manipulatives, or relating math or other subject-area learning. It may be through translated text or explanation from a same-language peer. 

 

Similarly, we should stay open-minded to how our ELs need to convey their understanding of math concepts. Differentiated assessment is one of the learning scaffolds that we can implement. We can adjust our expectations regarding the “how” of assessment, and focus on “what” students are communicating.

 

Apply Strategies for Culturally Responsive Teaching 

You have some great learning scaffolds to put in place for your English learners. Now this last recommendation is more of a broad-reaching approach to teaching than a scaffold (but I had to include it!). We know that effective math lessons are relevant and applicable to our students’ lives. Learners need to feel connected to content in order to be motivated and persevere through new challenges. We often overlook this when planning math lessons! “Schools often do not meet the needs of culturally different students, because they do not provide a social context for learning that allows the students to access knowledge in ways that are comfortable and familiar to them.” (Gloria Ladson-Billings) 

 

 

 

 

In order for English learners to personally connect with math instruction and concepts, we need to consider some strategies for culturally responsive teaching. 

 

First, we can cultivate a classroom community that invites curiosity and appreciation of varied cultures. We can build an environment where all students are valued, represented, and heard. Teachers can get to know students’ cultural assets and funds of knowledge. In this environment of positive relationships, students will have the courage to face learning challenges and take risks. 

 

From this point, we can examine the scenarios and cultural schema of math problems posed. We can work to ensure that we are framing math concepts in culturally-relevant situations. The terminology, names, and situations encountered should be representative of the circumstances that our students realistically find themselves in. Also, we look for how our ways of communicating and collaborating may differ from social norms of students’ cultures. We adapt and support as needed. 

 

The result of using these strategies for culturally responsive teaching will be student empowerment, engagement, and true inclusion.

 

 

 

Math Learning Scaffolds Can Support All Learners

 

Here’s the great things about math learning scaffolds. They can be quite effective in supporting all students, depending on their learning needs in a given math lesson. All students benefit when you plan with English learners in mind!

 

I encourage you to start small. Begin implementing one or two learning scaffolds in your math lessons, and see the impact this has on your English learners. Keep in mind that we should use linguistic scaffolds only as long as ELs need them.

 

 

 

If you’d like to learn more about how to scaffold your instruction for English learners, I provide weekly mini PD sessions on Instagram. Join me!

 

If you’d like a free template that will guide you to writing a language objective to accompany each lesson, you can get it here! (It also has a quick list of a lot more scaffolds you can use with ELs!)

 

 

 

It is so much fun to see English learners shine in math! For more ideas to support your math teaching, check out these amazing resources!

How to Fit Everything into Your 60-minute Math Block and Get Amazing Results – from Joyful Math

 

Start Math Class Calmly with these 3 Productive Ideas for Every Teacher – from Local Learners

 

Realistic Differentiation in the Elementary Math Classroom – from Math Coach Connection

 

 

Check out other posts from The All-Access Classroom:

How to Scaffold for ELLs So They Can Better Comprehend Grade-Level Text

 

How to Use WIDA Can Do Descriptors to Plan Effective Lessons for Multilingual Learners