Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Strand I: Pedagogy & Assessment

Spanish

Elementary (K-5)

In this exploratory ethnographic study, we seek to understand how the mathematics instruction in the target language can foster the development of number sense in students attending a third-grade DLI class in the Northeastern U.S. We inquired about the explicit/implicit messages and the language features included in mathematics instructional strategies in the DLI class. Preliminary findings suggest that third-graders needed a substantial intervention to represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction. This data may reveal strategies in which students in DLI can successfully be engaged through instructional strategies that would enhance the understanding of number sense, which is propaedeutic to the development of subsequent algebraic reasoning. In addition, such data can lead to the consideration of cross-subject knowledge between math and science, in order to enhance early engineering concepts development.