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
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