Instructional Strategies

I know it's hard to believe, but back-to-school season is here again. My social media feeds are full of teachers setting up their classrooms, and while I don't head back for another week, I'm already thinking through my own setup. Over the years, I've developed a process that helps me stay organized, avoid feeling overwhelmed, and make sure my classroom is ready for students—not just decorated for the first day.

When setting up a classroom for English language learners, it's easy to focus on decorations, bulletin boards, and making everything look perfect. But the classroom systems you build matter far more than how your room looks. Simple, consistent classroom systems help ELL students spend less time figuring out procedures and more time learning mathematics.

Teachers are busy, YOU are busy. We have so many little things to keep up with on a daily basis. The word wall was creating a struggle, but it would be worth it if I felt it was the ideal solution to support my students. My goal is to create a system that is easy to maintain, supports my students, and isn’t too visually overwhelming.

The end of the year always brings about a time of reflection. Reflection on what the future holds and on what the past year brought. Before I completely check out for the summer and start planning, I wanted to look back and celebrate both the successes and the struggles of the past year, while also looking ahead to classroom strategies for next year.

My students could classify quadrilaterals and explain properties with confidence. But when it came to multi-step angle problems, everything fell apart. Here’s what teaching quadrilaterals taught me about recognition vs. application in geometry.

Before even starting a math problem, many ELL students are managing multiple layers of language and instructions. This post explores why cognitive load matters and how simplifying problem language can help students access the math.

In high school math, vocabulary can be just as challenging as the problems themselves. Many struggling learners—and especially English Language Learners—get stuck on dense textbook definitions. In this post, we explore why math vocabulary for English language learners matters, why simplified definitions and visuals make a difference, and how teachers can start supporting ELLs in math today.