Tristan Stockford

12/6/2016
Math Journal Entry
ELL Centers Reflection
I think that overall our lesson we gave to the ELL students was a success. My group was
of course the geometry group, and so we had expected to teach surface area to our students for
basic 3D prisms. What came as a surprise (and we discovered through our
hook/pre-assessment), was when the students completed the kahoot and did not know any of
the formulas for calculating area. A few of the students knew how to calculate area for squares,
rectangles, and one even knew how to do it for triangles, but the vast majority did not. Needless
to say, we did not get to give our exit ticket as a result, because the exit ticket checked for
understanding on surface area, and yet we hardly covered surface area as we had to first teach
the students area.
In regards to the language barrier, I found what worked very well was the use of our
manipulatives. We were able to get right down to the students level and show them the shapes
and their respective nets in order to help calculate area. I could tell that some of the students did
not understand us right away, so I often repeated statements and questions I made. It also
helped that the students were able to speak english better than we were anticipating. One of the
pieces worth noting would be the one student that had an impairment, which we were not
notified of prior to giving the lesson. Apparently the teachers had aids that they could have given
the student to bring to class that day, but they neglected to do so, and as a result this student
was not as actively engaged as they could have been. It was a shame that this was the case, as
the teacher came over and told us that this student was actually one of his most gifted in
regards to mathematical ability. It would have been to great benefit had the student been able to
participate more.

I think that despite all the barriers we were to overcome in providing this lesson, the
students were able to walk away having been given a basic understanding of some of the
important foundations to higher level math that they may encounter. On top of these, my fellow
teachers-to-be and I also walked away having received an understanding of how we can better
engage students even when they have impairments of their own, or perhaps speak a language
other than english at home.