Reform-Oriented Mathematics in Three 6th Grade Classes: How Teachers Draw in ELLs to Academic Discourse

Traditionally, mathematics has been considered easy for English language learners (ELLs) due to the belief that math is a “universal language.” At the same time, reform-oriented mathematics curricula, designed to promote mathematical discourse, are increasingly being adopted by schools serving large numbers of ELLs. CMP, the Connected Math Project, is one such reform-oriented curriculum. Taking a community-of-practice approach, this article compares how three 6th grade mathematics teachers in a Spanish/English community utilized language to draw ELLs into content and classroom participation. Teacher use of standard language fell into 2 categories: (a) modeling and (b) eliciting student practice. In the teacher's class that regularly elicited language, ELLs were successful on academic assessments; whereas students in the other 2 classes were not. Results suggest that CMP facilitates ELLs' learning and that a focus on mathematical language and elicitation benefits the development of mathematical discourse and content knowledge.