This week I
was really excited to find an article
about second language learners and MATH!
I’ve really enjoyed learning about technology to support second language
learners in this class, but a lot of times I’m left wondering…what about activities
and strategies specifically for math class?
McMahon (2019) describes the challenges faced by two elementary schools
in California when it comes to the achievement gap for English learners in math.
Both
schools decided to pilot, Levered, and
adaptive math program. Levered was
created by Mitch Slater, a teacher, math intervention specialist, and
administrator with over 20 years of experience.
The program aligns common core standards with ELL teaching approaches,
includes features that support differentiation, and also incorporates pencil
and paper activities for blended learning.
Both schools demonstrated outstanding improvement in math on state
testing after using Levered. Both
principals reported that the stats reflect hundreds of individual student
success stories!
Monica Ruiz, one of the principals
in the pilot, says that ELL students are constantly pulling “double weight” in
their academic classes, learning content at the same time that they are working
on learning English. I can relate to
this so much with teaching math to L2s.
Math curriculum rarely aligns even when a student moves from one school
to another in the same state or even county.
It’s fair to say it never lines up for students who move to another
country! So…we throw students in a math
class that is probably too hard even in their native language and add on top of
that the gap in language, and what we get is a really difficult situation for
the student and teacher.
So, how
does Levered work? I’m glad you
asked! Both principals in the pilot
programs reported four ways that Levered helped their students.
#1 – This first one is the most important as far as I’m
concerned. Levered has several built in
supports that target learning content on grade level without watering it done for
English learners. Speaking of this, I
learned a new acronym this week – SDAIE (specially designed academic
instruction in English). Anyway, Levered
allows students to click on examples, have text read to them, view built in
glossary features, and view built in videos on a topic at any time. Ruiz credits these built in supports with
improving test scores dramatically for L2s in her school.
#2 – Levered makes differentiation automatic for learners of
all levels. Students work through the
program at their own speed. Teachers can
monitor student progress and are notified by the program when a student is
struggling. Teachers can then meet with
small groups of students based on data on language skills, math skills or
both. At both schools, 100% of teachers
using Levered reported an increase in confidence in students learning
math.
#3 – The blended approach of technology and paper and pencil
actually helped Levered fit in with the school’s social-emotional learning
(SEL) goals. Teachers found that Levered
allowed them to find more time to work with students individually and in small
groups which helped to build relationships.
It helped students feel comfortable in math class and happy to be
there.
#4 – The combination of differentiation, adaptive learning,
and teacher dashboard data creates a sense of equity for all levels of
learners. Ruiz believes Levered gives
all students the opportunity to be successful in math. She compares it to shoes – all students need
to have a pair of shoes, but we can’t give them all a size 10. All students need to learn the math lessons,
but they need opportunities to learn math in different ways.
Want to learn more? Watch interviews from both principals from
the pilot schools HERE. What videos on the Levered website HERE.
And…they don’t have a “Blog” (sad I know), but they do have a News page HERE.
References
McMahon, W. (2019, July 10). This Math
Program Helped Students Blow State Test Scores Out of the Water - EdSurge News.
Retrieved July 11, 2019, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-07-10-this-math-program-helped-students-blow-state-test-scores-out-of-the-water
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