ColorínColorado has a resource page dedicated to “Instructional Strategies for Dually-Identified Students,” written and researched by Dr. Diane Torres-Velasquez of the University of New Mexico and Dr. Diane Rodriguez of Fordham University. This page includes articles, videos, and recommended resources for educators looking to effectively modify instruction for English Language Learners (ELLs) with “identified disabilities.”
While there are plenty of assistive tools from which to choose, an article titled “Improving Mathematics Problem Solving Skills for English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities,” exemplifies teaching strategies for students in math, a subject we have not broached extensively in this blog.
The article’s “Tips for Teachers” offers suggestions for solving mathematical formulas through pre, during, and post activities. These “tips” are organized in tables that delineate which student skills we wish to cultivate and the teacher strategies which will help us accomplish that goal.
To this point, various teaching strategies are described in detail including KWL, PREP, GIST, and Question-Answer Relationship. The article suggests multiple ways to represent and utilize these teaching strategies in the classroom.
In addition, a section on questioning strategies is included in “a table of strategies and corresponding examples of questions to use to help students process and conceptualize solutions to mathematical problems.” ELLs and students with learning disabilities “benefit from the use of language to elicit, support and extend mathematical thinking.”
The article concludes with possible lesson plans websites for those interested in accommodating all students in their math classroom.
In this blog post we are only referencing a particular resource page for math classrooms, but the general resource page provides similar assistive documentation and tools for other subjects such as English. Please find the general resource page here.
