By: Stephanie García Galagarza (ENL teacher)Mary Bouchard (Algebra teacher)

Mary has been teaching Algebra for 32 years; 28 of those at Albany High

Stephanie has been teaching for 18 years; 16 of those at Albany High

We began co-teaching together last year in sheltered math classes (Topics in Algebra ENL & Algebra ENL)

Approximately 2,500 students total

Approximately 280 current ELLs

35 former ELLs who fall under the 2 year umbrella

Immigrants:1. El Salvador2. China3. Guatemala4. Mexico5. Dominican Republic6. Ecuador7. Puerto Rico8. Spain9. Philippines10. Burkina Faso11. Italy12. Guinea13. Haiti14. Albania15. Bangladesh16. Yemen

Refugees:1. Syria2. Iraq3. Jordan4. Libya5. Sudan6. Congo, DRC7. Rwanda8. Afghanistan9. Burma (Myanmar)10. Thailand11. India*12. Pakistan*13. Sri Lanka14. Nepal15. Tanzania

SpanishArabicBurmeseFrenchKarenPashtoSindhi

MandingoAlbanianBangla ChineseTamilHaitian CreoleGreek

HindiFarsiUrduNepaliSwahiliYorubaTurkishItalian

KinyamulengeKinyarwandaChinKarenniRohingyaTagalogCebuano

We had 80 ENL students overall ENL proficiency levels ranged from Entering

SIFE to Expanding 17 Countries represented (Puerto Rico,

Dominican Republic, Nepal/Bhutan, Iraq, Congo DRC, Italy, Thailand, Burma, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Guinea, Mexico, Pakistan, Libya & Ecuador)

We started out with 21 ENL students in the beginning of the year in our 6th period class

ENL proficiency levels ranged from Entering SIFE to Expanding

11 Countries represented (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Nepal/Bhutan, Iraq, Congo DRC, Italy, Thailand, Burma, Afghanistan, Syria & Yemen)

One student NEVER attended school until he arrived at AHS at 19 years old

Of the original 21 students: We lost 5 students for various reasons, but

we gained 3 others 8 students were our students last year in

Topics in Algebra ENL 6 students were repeaters and were our

students last year 5 were new to the country 2 transferred to AHS from Syracuse, but had

been in the country for less than one year

This class has always been very pleasant and genuinely care for one another; even the newer students were immediately accepted into “the family”

Almost every student in the class works hard and is willing to help each other learn

We didn’t have many. Here are a few:

There was a very wide range of math skills between our students.

There was one student who would get very frustrated because of his lack of English

We didn’t always have a large whiteboard for separate groups

We are being transferred to the Newcomer School!

As far as we know, we will be co-teaching together again!

We think we will be teaching mostly Topics in Algebra ENL, but perhaps one Algebra ENL class, too.

We plan on using the strategies we’ve used next year.

We want to tweak our Topics lessons from last year and make them more hands-on and student-centered.

Specific, strategic grouping:

Homogenous by language and/or math skills

Heterogeneous by either language and/or math skills

Peer teaching/tutoring with very little to almost no teacher instruction

We chose these strategies specifically because our goal was to make our lessons more student-centered. While we weren't able to incorporate them daily, we were able to incorporate them very often, making it second-nature to the students.

Grouping by math skills level Grouping by math skills level but

incorporating lead teachers Peer tutoring (high/low students) Centers/Stations Clear lessons broken down by topics Word walls with clear definitions, pictures

and examples Color coding Use of native languages

FIST-to-FIVE STRATEGY

This was a good strategy we often used with our

ENL students.

Group 1: Scored <50 on their Benchmark 2 –work with Mrs. García

Group 2: Scored 50 – 64 on Benchmark 2 –work with Mrs. Bouchard

Group 3: Scored >65 on Benchmark 2 –work collaboratively and/or independently

GROUP 1: You must complete at least the following number of questions in each packet:

Level 1 questions – 18 Level 2 questions – 3 Level 3 question – 1

GROUP 2: You must complete at least the following number of questions in each packet:

Level 1 questions – 12 Level 2 questions – 12 Level 3 questions – 3

GROUP 3: You must complete at least the following number of questions in each packet:

Level 1 questions – 12 Level 2 questions – 12 Level 3 questions – 12

• Students worked collaboratively in groups to solve quadratic equations or do error analyses of quadratic equations.

• 20 minutes at each station.

• 3 "Help Tickets“

• Extended Work