"Teaching Mathematics and English to English Language Learners Simultaneously"

David Slavit & Gisela Ernst-Slavit. "Teaching Mathematics and English to English Language Learners Simultaneously," Middle School Journal. November 2007.

The article takes a look at the challenge of ELL student in content area classes, particularly math, and the possible responses that teachers could implement. ELL students are described as doing twice the work--learning a new language while learning new content. The article contends that in order to communicate understanding of content to these students there needs to be an emphasis placed on vocabulary as being part of the lessons to build conceptual connections. Furthermore, there needs to be an effort to engage the cultural understanding of the student to have them draw on their knowledge and systems to develop understanding of new content. An example is given with different means of counting using body parts among students from different cultural backgrounds.

The authors do a good job of taking in the perspective of the student. This is seen in the sense of productive accommodation to the student in an effort to build upon their existing understandings. Connecting content to language structures and cultural experiences is a mode of accommodation that all teachers much possess dealing with all students--not just ELL.