Teaching Algebra

Julie O’Connor is an ESL teacher with this helpful math video on TeacherTube.

Do you teach students who are already familiar with the math concepts themselves, but don’t know enough English to talk about them? Or are they being exposed to the math concepts for the first time? What’s the situation usually?

Many times, they are familiar with the concepts - some students from the Middle East and Asia have been exposed to more complicated math. However, the word problems are a major challenge for the ESL students, so I try to give them some tools.

Do they get frustrated or impatient since they know the math, but not how it’s being communicated (like through word problems). How do you handle that?

Yes, there is frustration, but their actual math class teachers play a big role in this. Some of the math teachers are very understanding and don’t count the word problems as full credit, while others are not as patient about the challenges. So, that teacher compassion is a big factor in student frustration - I try to support the children when they are with me and help them in their other subjects.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with math teachers who have an ESL student in their class?

I think that teachers should count the word problems as extra credit. They also should use a lot of visuals to represent the lesson objectives. There are also ESL strategies and games such as Vocabulary Jigsaw which is a vocab. game - there are many fun ways to learn and then reinforce math vocab. Obviously, they should partner students with others of more language abilities to help the ESL child to communicate.

Juan is a private tutor in San Diego, and he’s got a blog about math tutoring.

Why is May the high season for math tutoring?

May is a high season for math tutoring because many students are preparing to take their final exams before the summer vacation. Suddenly they realize the once seemingly remote possibility of failing their course is now very much real, and fast approaching, so they frantically look for help, and my phone rings more often than it does during many other months.

How do you help them? Do they still have a chance of passing if they’ve neglected studying for so long?

Each student is a unique learner, in a unique academic situation. Everyone is different. I help each student to the best of my ability. How I help them, and how much I help them, that varies from student to student according to each one’s particular circumstances.

As to whether they have a chance of passing or not, or how big a chance they have, that also varies widely from student to student. My long personal experience in private tutoring tells me most of them have a chance, and many do have a pretty good chance of passing. I would not be getting any referrals if that was not the case.

Besides, avoiding a failing grade is not the only reason students look for tutoring help near the end of their course. Many students who are not in any danger of failing their course want, nonetheless, better their chances of getting a higher grade.

Could you give an example of a common, faulty thought process students can have and specifically how you help them with that example?

He gave me a great example from his site. Check it out… here’s a excerpt:

A very common mistake test takers make when they have been out of school for a while is that they automatically try to expand the square of a sum as if it was the same as the plain sum of the squares of the individual terms.