Embedded Files
Supporting Emerging Multilingual Learning and Voice in the Math Classroom
Research Team
Research Team
Julie Rea - 8th grade Math/Science teacher at HTMNC
Morgan Philips - Host -10th and 11th grade Math teacher at HTHMA
Freddy Miranda - 10th grade Education Specialist at HTHNC
Samuel Pawlikowski - 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Social Studies teacher at King Chavez Prep Middle School
Yekaterina Milvidskaia - Knowledgable Other, Math Specialist, and Improvement Coach for HTH GSE
Classroom Equity Theme: How do we support emergent bilingual students with feeling comfortable to express their mathematical ideas publicly and have those ideas valued by their peers?
Rationale: Language development is critical in all content areas. We have noticed a need to learn more about how we can support our EML students with language support in all content classrooms. We plan to do this by providing visuals and relating content in a more equitable way to make sure our students feel safe and comfortable in their learning environment.
Let's Slice Into The Lesson!
Lesson Content Understanding Goal:
Students will understand if we intersect with a horizontal plane of a cone, pyramid, cylinder, and cube, students will understand the accurate cross-section of that 3-dimensional shape.
Common Core Standards:
Learning standards for this unit
HS.G-MG.A.1
Use geometric shapes, their measures, and their properties to describe objects (e.g., modeling a tree trunk or a human torso as a cylinder).
Give an informal argument for the formulas for the circumference of a circle, area of a circle, volume of a cylinder, pyramid, and cone. Use dissection arguments, Cavalieri’s principle, and informal limit arguments.
Prior learning standards that unit builds on
8.G.C.9
Know the formulas for the volumes of cones, cylinders, and spheres and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
Later standards for which this unit is a foundation
HS.G-GMD.A.3
Use volume formulas for cylinders, pyramids, cones, and spheres to solve problems.
The Lesson: Lesson slides, whole class work, data collected and focal student reflections
Photos of student work during the lesson
Focal Students: Background information, observations, and their exit ticket/lesson reflection
Focus Student #1
Focus Student #1
Lesson Observations:
Very engaged
Technology was a distraction. For the majority of the class, she had her phone out once or twice
During the launch activity, she had great comments to help facilitate her group.
She made great noticings and connections. She noticed that the cube is made up of smaller squares
She made the connection that the base made up the cross section of some of the 3D shapes if you cut across horizontally
In the extension activity, she raised her hand to go first and share out with the group
She was ok to explore and demonstrated some agency of asking for help
She did call on Morgan to check on her answers. She did share some justification of her answers.
Focus Student #2
Focus Student #2
Latinx male. Enjoys video games. Very brief conversations most of the time.
Often afraid of asking questions or getting help. May choose to hang out alone as opposed to with peers. Uno worked well as a game that was comfortable and fun to play with peers.
Lesson Observations:
Observed off-task behavior (normal for 10th graders)
His focal student was communicating in Spanish with a classmate, but not to the entire table
The focal student was able to use visuals and writing in his native language
Freddy was able to ask probing questions to focal student in his native language
Ex: wrote “Rhombus” in spanish and drew out the image he visualized to explain his understanding and thinking
Used the play-doh container to explain the shape of a cylinder and base
Focus Student #3
Focus Student #3
Latinx female. Has a close social circle and is a very loyal friend. Loves to help others in any way possible. Native Spanish speaker and will often help students with translation or clarifications. Has been a vital support for close classmates.
Academically strong and very hard-working; voluntarily took a college math class during fall semester on top of other courses. Aspiring to be a doctor, acknowledging the schooling and determination that it will take to get there.
Lesson Observations:
Her numbered shape was a cylinder, but said she created a traffic cone
Communicating with a peer in their native language, Spanish
Most of the time was on task with the discussion
Couldn’t fully collect data on how many times they were talking on topic
Was distracted by the play-doh
Wasn’t eager to show her play-doh up when asked for the cube
Used the play doh container to help mold the cylinder
For the worksheet, she successfully drew out each image accurately.
Corrected classmates when a classmate tried to support/correct her
For the extension activity, the focal student asked “what do you call a shape when all sides are different”
She is also engaged in a college math class
Focus Student #1
Focus Student #2
Focus Student #3
Data Collected
Data Collected
Share one idea that you heard to help you better understand the content in this lesson.
"That all 3d shapes are made up of the "basic shapes"
"how in the shapes there’s stacking so if the base is a square then in the middle square it’ll be stacked so where ever you cut it there’s a square"
"One idea that helped me understand the content in this lesson is working hard and paying attention"
Whole class understanding after content was taught
What was one idea that you connected with in class?
"Like how we talked about last week, a three dimensional shape in made up of a bunch of 2 dimensional shapes."
"Using playdoh to visualize cutting through shapes"
"Something that I connected with was the idea behind cutting up shapes resulting into different types of sides."
"A lot of objects i see in every day life are 3D objects"
Who did you connect with during the lesson today?
"How you can use play dough to represent slicing shapes."
"Me and Josh shared play-doh and ideas as well."
"abril because we both had the same ideas"
"my table mates"
"Everyone at my table"
Lesson Debrief:
Discussion:
Freddy: Celebrating interactions of students using their native language in class; has the benefit for EB students to engage their prior knowledge and communicate their thinking. They KNOW the math, allows them to communicate what they know. Also the camaraderie of the table observed and being comfortable with one another. Some of the research that we read allows students to engage more deeply when in their home language.
Julie: Celebrating how willing the kids were to do the activity and play along with the lesson. Having fun with one another, fun to see shapes of common 3D shapes around the room. Someone said, “I made an ice cream cone,” asked, “who else made an ice cream cone?” Would have been nice to have 5-10 more minutes of discussion to see where student thinking was at, a guide to the exit ticket questions such as, “what is something you learned from another student?” Many responses in the exit ticket were, “I had fun”, yet “I already knew this,” or, “I wanted a challenge option,” or, “I learned that a 2D base creates a 3d image.” Better facilitation could have perhaps gotten the class on the same page and allowed us to see where their thinking was at. At the end of each shape, the shapes were drawn large to show what the slices would look like. Drew exactly what the student was saying in order to break it down with the rest of the class. Highlighted descriptions that we had not planned for and that might seem unrelated to the rest of the lesson.
Sam: Celebrating engagement, yet also hearing in exit tickets, “I want more of a challenge.” Even if students may have known that a cone was made up of circles, they still did it. Observations were more telling than exit tickets, we saw them making connections in real-time. When planning, we talked about allowing students to decide how they would make the cuts as opposed to telling them how. They shared often that the shape that you will get after slicing will depend on how the slice is made.
Next Steps for Learning:
Being more intentional with the kids doing the majority of the talking, means the students will be doing all the thinking. If the teachers are doing the majority of the talking, then the teachers are doing the majority of the thinking and not allowing the students to do the full thinking and discussing. Restating and re-phrasing instructions, thoughts, or ideas. Create structures to help make students feel more comfortable engaging in their native language.
Final Lesson Presentation of Learning
Sharing celebrations, major takeaways, student data, and an overall reflection of the first lesson study cycle.
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