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From http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/feb/02/san-diego-educators-working-make-math-english-lear/

San Diego Educators Working To Make Math Friendlier For English Learners
by Megan Burks
February 2, 2017

Marianna Moncreiff is a math teacher now. But when she started college in the United States, she was put in a remedial math course.

"Even though I knew the math, I could not pass the test because I didn't know what the questions were," Moncreiff said.

Born in Slovakia, now she's teaching students from all over the world at Hoover High School in City Heights. About 30 percent of the student body there is learning to speak English. Another 50 percent, like Moncrieff, speak it as a second language.

Also like Moncreiff, a lot of them are pretty good at math.

"Before I show to my students how to solve problem, I ask my students first to come to the board to show me how they do it in their country," Moncreiff said. "Most of the time, it's exactly how I learned in Slovakia. And I get very excited about that because I can support them in that. I know they're not doing anything wrong.

"And in some cases students show me ways I haven't seen before. I learned from my students how to divide fractions in a way I haven't seen before, and later I saw it in our new textbook."

This year, Moncreiff and her colleagues are meeting after school each week to pore over worksheets and tests. They're dissecting the language both they and their students used in questions and answers. The goal is to find and fix the things that might land English learners in a remedial math class they don't need.

Read the full article at http://www.kpbs.org/news/2017/feb/02/san-diego-educators-working-make-math-english-lear/Language