Page 46 - Mathematics GRADE 9, DE-STREAMED (MTH1W)

computer algebra systems, and calculators; ensuring access to assistive technology), as well as
modifications that are specified in the student’s Individual Education Plan;
• building an inclusive community of learners and encouraging students with special education
needs to participate in various mathematics-oriented class projects and activities;
• building partnerships with administrators and other teachers, particularly special education
teachers, where available, to share expertise and knowledge of the curriculum expectations; co- develop content in the Individual Education Plan that is specific to mathematics; and systematically implement intervention strategies, as required, while making meaningful connections between school and home to ensure that what the student is learning in the school is relevant and can be practised and reinforced beyond the classroom.
Planning Mathematics Programs for English Language Learners
English language learners are working to achieve the curriculum expectations in mathematics while they are developing English-language proficiency. An effective mathematics program that supports the success of English language learners is purposefully planned with the following considerations in mind.
• Students’ various linguistic identities are viewed as a critical resource in mathematics instruction and learning. Recognizing students’ language resources and expanding linguistic competence enables students to use their linguistic repertoire in a fluid and dynamic way, mixing and meshing languages to communicate. This translingual practice6 is creative and strategic, and allows students to communicate, interact, and connect with peers and teachers using the full range of their linguistic repertoire, selecting features and modes that are most appropriate to communicate across a variety of purposes, such as when developing conceptual knowledge and when seeking clarity and understanding.
• Students may be negotiating between school-based mathematics and ways of mathematical reasoning from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. They may have deep mathematical knowledge and skills developed in another educational cultural and/or linguistic context, and may already have learned the same mathematical terms and concepts that they are studying now, but in another language.
• Knowledge of the diversity among English language learners and of their mathematical strengths, interests, and identities, including their social and cultural backgrounds, is important. These
6 Ofelia García, Susana Ibarra Johnson, and Kate Seltzer, The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning (Philadelphia, PA: Caslon, 2017).
Sunny Man Chu Lau and Saskia Van Viegen, Plurilingual Pedagogies (Springer Cham, New York City, NY: 2020).
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