La Clase de Matemáticas (Math Class)

This past week in the Independent Study and Mentorship I got to experience a new type of classroom setting. On Thursday, February 8th, I had to opportunity to observe Mrs. Claribel Bautista, math and science teacher at Christie Elementary for bilingual third grade. This experience was exciting and new, as I have been observing my mentor, Mrs. Raquel Matney's, reading and writing class.

The format of the math class for bilingual education is fascinating. The class begins with a ten minute vocabulary recap where they review what they have learned previously. The class then moves onto teaching the lesson of the day. Everyday, no matter the language of the week, the lesson is taught in English. Math is the only subject in third grade that is taught in English one hundred percent of the time. After the lesson over fractions and multiplications, Mrs. Bautista pulled students up to her teacher table in groups of five, a concept I am familiar with due to the fact that Mrs. Matney has small groups as well. During the small group, Mrs. Bautista went over frequently missed questions from the Curriculum Based Assessment (CBA) that the class took previously in the week. A surprising thing that I noticed is that the grades were lower than expected. A large majority of the students did not pass the test. Mrs. Bautista said that math is normally the most difficult subject for these students due to the fact that it is not taught or tested in their native language. Because of this obstacle, the students often struggle learning math. I will make sure to keep this in mind as I create the math section of my handout for my Final Product.

This week has an eye opening experience. By getting to observe the math class, I came to the conclusion that I will most likely want to teach reading or writing. Math is a fascinating class in bilingual education but I think that reading and writing is more for me. I am excited to continue exploring elementary bilingual education this year.