Winooski High School: My Fourth Visit

Today at my fourth Winooski High School placement I had the opportunity of working with one of the students in the English Language Learners (ELL) program. For my Adolescent Development class this semester, my professor is gearing the curriculum around the aspects, challenges, and teaching approaches needed when instructing a class that may include ELLs. Today the students were working on adding and subtracting fractions. The ELL student that I had the privilege of working with was from China. China uses a very similar mathematical system when compared to the United States. The greatest and most beneficial similarity is the base-10 system that both of our countries use. It simplifies learning how to add and subtract using a number system that is based on counting by tens. My student seemed to be years beyond learning fractions, often having no difficulty adding fractions without a common denominator, a topic that most of the class seemed to struggle with. It was remarkable to witness a student who knows very little English excel beyond other, native speaking students in the field of mathematics. Mathematics can often transcend the language barrier. The greatest challenge that I had with this young student was the communication barrier.

Although the student could string together very basic sentences, often times directions, clarifying questions, and conversation with fellow neighbors about a math equation seemed to be a challenge for this young Chinese student. However, it was remarkable to see this student implement technology into the classroom to eliminate any miscommunication. There is an app that can be downloaded for an iPhone or an iPad called “Baidu Translate,” in which students whom are learning English as a new language can translate sentences into English from their native language. Unlike Google translate, the accuracy used within this app is said to be much higher. This implementation of technology proved essential not only for the students’ understanding, but also for my own personal understanding. I was able to establish a personal relationship through asking him questions about where he is from using the app. I was also able to provide aid for challenging problems (even though this student did not seem to struggle all that much) as well as give praise for the student’s success.

Technology is becoming essential for teacher’s use within the classroom. This app proved to not only benefit the student’s learning, but also to benefit the student socially. The most useful feature in the app is that the student can take a picture of the directions to a problem, highlight the words, and the app will translate the directions into the student’s native language. Remarkable! Although this app needs to be used in moderation so the student does not become dependent on the iPad, it still has so many benefits for ELL students to become assimilated within the American classroom. Searching for different ways to implement technology in the classroom is essential for teachers to educate, relate, and coexist with twenty-first century students. Finding ways to implement technology in my own math classroom will prove to be a challenge, but technology can sometimes transcend areas such as language barriers to create an engaging, inclusive classroom.