Understanding the Implications of the Common Core Mathematical Practice Standards for English Learners: An Interactive Symposium

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

The Mathematical Practice Standards (MP) are foregrounded in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics with the goal of connecting school mathematics and the practices of mathematicians. The centrality of communication in several of these standards prompts the overarching question guiding this interactive symposium: How do teachers of English learners (ELs) enact the MPs in classrooms where students are simultaneously learning content and the language of instruction? Three researchers will begin answering this question by sharing case studies from middle and secondary classrooms focusing on how teachers of ELs enacted MP.1, “Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them,” and MP.6, “Attend to precision.” Attendees will then engage in a structured discussion around the data presented in the symposium.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research in Mathematics Education

Chair

• Judit N. Moschkovich, University of California - Santa Cruz

Papers

• Examining the Ways in Which Teachers Attend to Precision in Mathematics Instruction for English Learners - William Carl Zahner, Boston University

• Unintended Consequences: Accommodating English Language Learners and Eliminating All Struggle - Zandra de Araujo, University of Missouri

• Foregrounding and Backgrounding Mathematical Practices to Support English Learners - Sarah Ann Roberts, University of California - Santa Barbara

Discussant

• Richard Barwell, University of Ottawa