When the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) released content standards nearly a decade ago, the organization ushered in an approach to teaching and learning mathematics that posed "new dilemmas" for English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students, Sharon Norman told conference attendees.
Norman, an instructional support teacher for the Fairfax County (Va.) Public Schools, said the standards are "wonderfully sound," but added that ESL students might have difficulty meeting them because of the emphasis on problem solving, communicating, and reasoning.
Many ESL students may know how to do the math, but may not be able to communicate that understanding, added copresenter Dena Sewell, also a Fairfax County instructional support teacher. Teachers must be sensitive to students who aren't proficient in English, she said, and use techniques that have been effective in teaching ESL students in other content classrooms. For example, students must be taught that it's OK to "slow down, back up, and reread" a problem to gain a better understanding of what is being asked, Sewell explained.
Sewell and Norman said they applaud the current approach to teaching mathematics, and they appreciate NCTM's mandate that all students be given access to a full mathematics program.
Toward that end, Fairfax County has developed a K-12 curriculum to help ESL students acquire math and language skills simultaneously. Called Focus on Achieving Standards of Teaching Mathematics (FAST Math), the curriculum gives teachers "sound instructional strategies" for introducing and developing language in mathematics classrooms. "We really believe that students can learn language through content, if it's done at their level and approached in the right way," said Norman. FAST Math, she concluded, helps teachers understand the need "to teach language first if they want all students to learn math."