Relating Mathematical Understanding to Oral Language Proficiency: Elementary Teachers' Ratings of Student Mathematical Explanations

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: The Interplay of Math, Science, and Literacy II

Abstract

In today’s academic standards, mathematics proficiency relies on students’ linguistic competence in explaining the procedures leading to their solutions. In this study, elementary-aged students (n=192) orally explained the process by which they found a total number of cubes. Teachers then rated the degree to which these explanations demonstrated evidence of students’ mathematical understanding. We compared teacher ratings and examined how students’ mathematical understanding related to various oral language measures. Teacher ratings of math understanding differed based on students’ English Learner status, grade level, and the mathematical strategy they used. Teacher ratings were closely related to students’ language sophistication in four areas: sentence sophistication, establishment of advanced relationships between ideas, vocabulary, and stamina. Implications for instruction and formative assessment are discussed.

Authors

• Anne Blackstock-Bernstein, University of California - Los Angeles

• Amy Woodbridge, University of California - Los Angeles

• Sandy Chang, University of California - Los Angeles

• Alison L. Bailey, University of California - Los Angeles