Title
See, touch, and feel math: Digital design for English language learners
Author(s)
Bennett, Dorothy; Chudoba, Tara; Flowers, Xiomara; Slouffman, Heidi
Published
2021
Abstract
This chapter discusses the new forms of engagement that can emerge when formal educators who are experts in working with English language learners (ELLs) are invited into informal learning environments. The focus of the chapter is an after-school pilot program developed by the New York Hall of Science, in partnership with a local middle school and two teachers, to address the mathematics and language literacy needs of ELLs. The program invited ELLs to create digital design projects that connect to their lives and cultures, and to engage in hands-on, full body activities where they acted out, discussed, experimented with, and represented the mathematical ideas behind their designs. The chapter describes how combining human resources, creative digital tools, and materials in innovative ways can promote a sense of agency and inclusion in mathematics learning. It further demonstrates how science museums can serve as a low-stakes but engaging environment in which teachers, students, and their families learn alongside each other about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Finally, the chapter sheds light on how codesigning and testing activities with educators in an informal learning environment can have a profound impact not only on the participating students, but on their teachers.
Keywords
education
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PUB27171