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.

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.