Strategies for Teaching Mathematics

Give students (especially beginners) alternate ways to participate in whole-class discussions and respond to questions

Do quick checks for understanding every day (i.e., thumbs up/down, write answers on wipe boards at desks, hold up manipulatives).

Assess students’ knowledge before beginning a unit of study to learn where students have gaps in their learning and avoid unnecessary re-teaching of concepts.

Use daily warm- up activities to assess mastery of concepts from the previous day’s lesson.

Allow students to talk to a peer in their native language when necessary to clarify understanding and clear up misunderstandings.

Keep picture dictionaries in the class and allow the students to use bilingual dictionaries.

Give directions step-by-step (orally and in writing) before assigning students to do independent, pair, or group work

Classroom Management Strategies

Assessment Strategies

Instructional Strategies that Increase Comprehensions

Before instruction

Create predictable classroom routines (starting class, collecting homework, working in groups)

During instruction

Strategies for Teaching Mathematics

Demonstrate how to read a mathematics textbook. Point out key sections and resources in the textbook

Teach students how to organize notebooks and binders and record homework assignments.

Initiate discussions that are based on real-world mathematical situations

Design meaningful and authentic collaborative activities to increase verbal interaction between students.

Use gestures and visuals to help clarify the message. Avoid using idioms and slang words.

Simplify the language used rather than the mathematical concepts taught (use known vocabulary and simple sentence constructions).

Connect students’ prior knowledge and experiences to new learning. Find out what students already know about a topic by making a semantic web on the board.

Integrate students’ culture into lessons whenever possible.

Use real- life problem-solving situations to teach new concepts

Use visuals whenever possible to reinforce auditory instruction (i.e. manipulatives, diagrams, models, real objects).

Teach students to identify key words in word problems that indicate a certain mathematical operation.

Teach mathematical vocabulary (i.e., estimate, measure) and language structures daily.

Integrate language and content

Use a variety of modes of instruction

Tap prior knowledge

Modify speech

Instructional Strategies that Increase Comprehensions

Teach organizational skills

Encourage active learning and verbal interaction