Class scenario 1:
This classroom has 100% EBs with various English proficiency levels. Three EBs have recently arrived in the U.S. from non-English speaking countries. Including these three students, about 20% of the students in the class are at the beginning level in English. Due to the language barrier, you, the teacher, do not have sufficient information about their mathematical knowledge. Approximately 50% of the students are at the intermediate level in English, so they can have everyday conversations in English without significant difficulties but still need linguistic support. Their mathematical levels vary: you can tell some of them have sufficient prior knowledge in mathematics and high computational skills, but others do not perform well in mathematics. The other 30% of the students are at an advanced level in English, but their mathematical performance levels vary.
Q. If you were the mathematics teacher of this classroom, what strategy/approach would you use?
Class scenario 2:
This classroom has 20 students and only one of them is identified as an EB who is not White. The other 19 students are all White and are monolingual English speakers, and most of them have not been exposed to culturally and linguistically diverse people in their lives. Their mathematical performances are at various levels, and the EB’s mathematical knowledge is unknown. The EB is a newcomer whose English level is intermediate and conversational but needs help to understand your math lesson.
Q. If you were the mathematics teacher of this classroom, what strategy/approach would you use to support both the EB student and non-EB students?