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ERIC Number: EJ993618
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Oct
Pages: 7
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1072-0839
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
ELLs and Group Work: It Can Be Done Well
Zahner, William C.
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, v18 n3 p156-162 Oct 2012
Small-group discussions are one tool that teachers in linguistically diverse classes can use to promote all students' participation in mathematical discussions. Although many teachers in such classes express reservations about using group work, numerous examples from research and practice have explored teachers successfully using group discussions to teach high-level mathematics to all their students. This article discusses four major elements that a teacher should consider while using groups: (1) selecting appropriate tasks; (2) assigning students to groups; (3) setting up group norms; and (4) assessing students' understanding. Measure Twice, which accompanies this article, is one example of a task that a middle school teacher might use for an initial group project. The task focuses on the proportional relationship between ounces and milliliters, and students use real-world objects and a graph to construct the proportional relationship between these two measurements. The task includes follow-up questions in which students explain the relationship by reasoning with multiple representations. (Contains 1 figure.)
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 1906 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191-1502. Tel: 800-235-7566; Tel: 703-620-3702; Fax: 703-476-2970; e-mail: orders@nctm.org; Web site: http://www.nctm.org/publications/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A