Teaching Children Mathematics / April 2008 479

Lynda R. Wiest, wiest@unr.edu, is an associate profes-

sor of education at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her
professional interests include mathematics education,
educational equity, and teacher education.
By Lynda R. Wiest
A
ccording to the National Clearinghouse for
English Language Acquisition and Language
Instruction Educational Programs, the grow-
ing number of students with limited English pro-
ciency includes slightly more than 10 percent of
K12 students in todays U.S. classrooms (NCELA
Problem-Solving
Support for English
Language Learners
Copyright 2008 The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc. www.nctm.org. All rights reserved.
This material may not be copied or distributed electronically or in any other format without written permission from NCTM.
480 Teaching Children Mathematics / April 2008
Readers are encouraged to identify key instructional
approaches from the following categories, each of
which is discussed after the classroom lesson:
problem-solving approach
collaboration and communication
constructivist orientation
student background knowledge
visual aids
hands-on materials
language support
classroom climate
Lesson background
Mrs. Higgins has just given each student a modi-
ed activity sheet for the Chickens and Pigs word
problem that uses the names of a boy and girl in the
class. The upper corners of the page show drawings
of a chicken and a pig (see g. 1).
Teaching episode
Mrs. Higgins asks a volunteer to read the Chickens
and Pigs problem aloud. She then asks the class to
read the problem again silently and think about the
story line. Now, in your groups of four, Mrs. Hig-
gins says, discuss what the problem is about and
what it asks you to do. Be sure everyone in your
group understands. Do not talk about how to solve
the problem or try to solve it yet. Mrs. Higgins
walks around the room as students discuss what
the problem is about, with some pairs occasionally
reverting to Spanish.
After students have had adequate discussion time,
Mrs. Higgins asks if someone can explain what the
problem is about. Students offer a range of explana-
tions, such as, We have to gure out if Brandon
and Vanessa are correct about how many chickens
and pigs there are and Its about multiplication.
Without interjecting, Mrs. Higgins allows students
to respond to one another, agree or disagree, explain
similar ideas in different words, or extend others
thinking. She then poses questions to help the class
focus on key aspects of the problem: I am going to
ask a few questions about the problem to be sure we
all agree on some facts before we try to solve the
problem. Mrs. Higgins poses the following ques-
tions and allows the class to discuss and agree on
each answer before asking the next:
What is a barn? [Mrs. Higgins writes the word
barn on the board and points to the barn on a
barnyard-scene poster that she placed on the
wall before the lesson.]
The Chickens and Pigs problem
Brandon and Vanessa went to their grandfathers barn. When they got back to
the house, their mom asked what they had seen. Brandon said they saw some
chickens and pigs. Vanessa agreed and said that she had counted 18 animals.
Brandon hadnt noticed that, but he had counted 52 legs. If Brandon and
Vanessa are correct, how many chickens and pigs were there?
Try This!
Find the number of chickens and pigs representing a combined total of
A. 68 feet, 26 heads
B. 200 legs, 70 heads
Figure 1
2006). English language learners (ELLs) may need
special support to meet the educational standards we
set for students. In its Equity Principle, the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics states, Some
students may need further assistance to meet high
mathematics expectations. Students who are not
native speakers of English, for instance, may need
special attention to allow them to participate fully in
classroom discussions (NCTM 2000, p. 12). This
need has become particularly important because
mathematics tasks are increasingly contextualized
and thus verbal in nature, in addition to the fact that
greater emphasis has been placed on communica-
tion in mathematics classrooms.
Chickens and Pigs Problem
Problem solving, one of the NCTMs ve Process
Standards (NCTM 2000), is at the heart of good
mathematics instruction for all content topics. This
manuscript presents a lesson built on an author-
adapted version of the classic Chickens and Pigs
word problem. Heidi Higgins taught the lesson to
a fourth-grade class, one-half of which was mostly
Spanish-speaking ELLs. Students desks were
arranged in groups of four with students grouped
heterogeneously by linguistic background, race or
ethnicity, gender, and academic ability. When pos-
sible, each lower-prociency ELL was placed in a
group with a more advanced ELL, who spoke the
same language, and two native English speakers.
Mrs. Higgins demonstrates effective teaching
methods for facilitating problem solving in a way
that reaches a range of learners, including ELLs.
Teaching Children Mathematics / April 2008 481
How many animals did Brandon and Vanessa
see in their grandfathers barn?
What kind of animals were they?
What is a chicken? [Mrs. Higgins writes chicken
on the board and points to the picture of the
chicken on a transparency of the student activ-
ity sheet displayed on the overhead projector.]
Does anyone know the word for this animal
in another language that you speak? [Students
enthusiastically offer Spanish and Pakistani
words.] How many legs [pointing to her own
legs] does a chicken normally have?
What is a pig? [Mrs. Higgins follows through in
the same manner as she did with chicken.]
What does the problem ask you to do?
Mrs. Higgins recaps key details, including what stu-
dents have determined they need to nd to answer
the problem. She has students discuss the problem
in their small groups to decide how they might try
to solve it. She tells them to talk about several ideas
before choosing one that they may then implement
as a group or in pairs. Many students initially sug-
gest inappropriate algorithms such as one-step mul-
tiplication or division and tend to ignore the critical
problem details before gradually moving to other
problem-solving strategies. Mrs. Higgins walks
among the students as they work. Besides listening
to their thinking and answering questions (often
with another question), she poses questions that
encourage students to explain, justify, and extend
their thinking. As students work, Mrs. Higgins
asks, Can you explain what youre doing? Does
it seem to be working? Why (or why not)? She
allows sufcient time for students to think about
and answer her questions.
When members in a pair or group agree that
their answer is correct, Mrs. Higgins makes sure
the nal answer has been written in a full sentence,
such as, There were ten chickens and eight pigs
in the barn. She then challenges the group with
one or more of the following, at times waiting for
a response and at other times moving to another
group:
Explain why you think your answer is correct.
Reread the problem. Tell why you think your
answer makes sense.
See if you can solve the problem a different way.
Can this problem have more than one answer?
Have you ever seen a problem similar to this
one? If so, what was it? How are the problems
alike? How are they different?
Mrs. Higgins asks some groups to proceed to the
problem extensions (Try This!) at the bottom of
the activity sheet. When she feels all groups are rea-
sonably procient with the initial problem, she calls
the class together. She asks for one or a pair of vol-
unteers from each group to go to the board or over-
head projector and use drawings to explain their
solution strategy for the original problem. (Solution
methods at this age level will likely be guess-and-
check methods that include computation, drawings,
tables, or some combination of these. If manipula-
tive materials are available, students may use them
as well, as in representing animals with circular
counters and toothpicks.)
A student pair shows how they started with two
numbers whose sum was eighteen animals (seven
chickens plus eleven pigs). They write 7 2 and
11 4 on the board to show how they rst arrived
at a sum of fty-six legs. They next remove one pig
to get fty-two legs, but now they have only sev-
enteen animals. After two more guess-and-check
attempts, they nd what they believe to be a correct
answer of ten chickens and eight pigs.
After the pair nishes, Mrs. Higgins asks their
classmates what they think about the students
work. Classmates agree that the method and answer
are acceptable. Some comment that they used a
similar method. Mrs. Higgins asks if any group
solved the problem a different way. Another pair of
students goes to the board to show how their group
used a draw-a-picture strategy. They draw physical
representations of animals with numeric lists of the
corresponding number of legs (see g. 2), making
corrections until they arrive at an answer that satis-
es the problem conditions.
A nal pair of students, claiming yet a
different solution, draws eighteen circles
on the board to represent eighteen
animals. Next, they draw vertical
lines on the bottom
of each to repre-
sent legs and adjust
them until they
arrive at fty-two
legs arranged in
pairs or fours. Class-
mates again comment
on these approaches.
While wrapping up
the session, Mrs.
Higgins suggests
students might
want to see if a
482 Teaching Children Mathematics / April 2008
family member at home can solve the problem the
students solved today. She informs them they will
solve a similar problem tomorrowabout bicycles
and tricycles (see g. 3)and they will write a prob-
lem of their own for others to solve.
Teaching note
Use of the guess-and-check method with a record-
keeping chart for this problem can be viewed at home.
avvanta.com/~math/guess.html. A good discussion of
language, background knowledge, and assessment
issues in relation to this problem may be found at
www.nwrel.org/assessment/toolkit98/Act3-7.html.
Instructional Support
Strategies for ELLs
Increased emphasis on problem solving and con-
textualized learning in mathematics education
gives English language learners greater verbal
challenges than their native-speaking classmates.
The following discussions highlight some major
aspects of the Chickens and Pigs lesson that reect
good teaching for all learners, with particular
importance for ELLs.
Problem-solving approach
Good mathematics teaching uses an investigative
approach to all mathematics topics. Harniss and
others note, Content for diverse learners cannot be
watered down or second rate. Rather, the goal is to
devise curriculum and instruction techniques so that
these students can think, solve problems, and rea-
son (2002, p. 123). Note that Mrs. Higgins explores
a single problem in great depth and breadth, an
approach that is much preferred over solving numer-
ous problems with greater haste and superciality.
Understanding a problem before solving it is
critically important. Mrs. Higgins spends much time
facilitating initial understanding of the Chickens and
Pigs problem and continues to expect students to
demonstrate conceptual understanding throughout
the problem-solving process. She also encourages
students to nd more than one solution plan for solv-
ing the problem and has them share their methods
with one another to build exible thinking, allow
students to choose personally comprehensible strate-
gies, validate differing approaches to mathematics,
and foster the belief that mathematics is a human
activity to which students have access. Having
students write their own problem (see g. 3, Try
This!) employs written communication skills and
encourages thinking at a higher level, one where
students produceinstead of consumerelevant
material and, moreover, evaluate peers work.
It is useful to have students, particularly ELLs,
engage and remain immersed in a single context
during a problem-solving session or several succes-
sive sessions. This way, students can acquire appro-
priate background knowledge about the context
(barnyard concepts in the case of the Chickens and
Pigs problem) and solve numerous problems and
problem extensions based on the same foundational
ideas without having to reorient their thinking or
gain new background information for each new
problem. Mrs. Higginss students engage a single
context to explore the Chickens and Pigs problem
A pair of students showed their groups draw-a-picture strategy
with physical representations of animals and numeric lists of the
corresponding number of legs.
Figure 2
The Bicycles and Tricycles problem
Yolanda and Juans parents bought a bicycle
store. The storage room had parts for
making bicycles and tricycles. Juan
counted 17 bicycle frames on one side
of the room, and Yolanda counted 43
wheels on the other. Their mother said
she would put all the wheels on all the
frames. How many bicycles and how
many tricycles will that make?
Try This!
Work with your assigned partner within your group of four to write a word
problem similar to the Chickens and Pigs problem and the Bicycles and Tricycles
problem. Be sure you know the correct answer. Exchange your problem with your
assigned pair from another group. Solve one anothers problems, and then give
your solved problem back to the authors to look over and tell you how you did.
Figure 3
Teaching Children Mathematics / April 2008 483
fully in one class session. Although the Bicycles
and Tricycles problem uses a new story line, it
follows nicely by allowing students to practice the
same mathematical idea in a new contextin other
words, to work toward the all-important goal of
transferring their knowledge to a new setting.
Collaboration and
communication
The Chickens and Pigs problem-solving lesson
engages students in collaborations that occur as a
class, in groups of four, and in pairs. Collaborative
work encourages greater student participation and
ownership of learning as well as skill development
in communication and building relationships. It
allows students to ask questions and make mistakes
in a safe setting and to get frequent, immediate
feedback on their thinking. Peer communication
is important for all students, especially ELLs, to
develop language skills and foster understanding of
a topic. Addressing the instructional needs of ELLs
in mathematics, Anstrom notes, Students need
ample opportunities to hear math language and to
speak and write mathematically (1999, p. 5). Such
opportunities are best presented during authentic
discourse over a common, engaging task.
In the lesson, student groups of four are mixed
heterogeneously according to several student char-
acteristics. It is best to place ELLs in pairs within
groupsespecially when each pair includes a more-
and a less-procient English speakerinstead of
distributing them one to a group. Providing learners
whose rst language is not English with social and
language support is important, as is interaction with
peers who are more linguistically procient in the
language of instruction, especially those who are
slightly more advanced (Daz-Rico and Weed 2002).
Constructivist orientation
A dominant belief about learning mathematics
today is constructivism, the idea that people learn
by actively building knowledge through dialoguing
and reecting on concepts. Mrs. Higginss lesson is
constructivist because its student-centered orienta-
tion requires a great deal of student explanation,
justication, and extension of thinking. It includes
a variety of question types for students to consider,
and students are responsible for conrming or dis-
proving classmates work.
Student background knowledge
Before proceeding with mathematical tasks, ensur-
ing that all students understand the context of the
mathematics is important. Helping students come
closer to a common starting point is Mrs. Hig-
ginss goal when she initially taps into and builds
essential knowledge of the barnyard scenario. A
common backdrop from which to pursue math-
ematical tasks can also be established by reading
an appropriate childrens book to the class or by
engaging students in a common experience before
presenting activities based on these contexts. This
is particularly important for ELLs, but it is also
useful for all students because of the wide variety of
their background experiences. (As a local example,
when a graduate student recently conducted the
Chickens and Pigs problem with two separate
classes, he found that a fteen-year-old i n
each class initially approached the
problem with the mistaken belief
that chickens had four legs.)
Visual aids
Mrs. Hi ggi nss act ivi t y
sheets include pictures of key
elements discussed in the word prob-
lems. Visually appealing to students,
the pictures also serve an important
function for ELLs (and sometimes
other students) by helping them build
understanding of problems before
attempting to solve them. Mrs. Hig-
gins also points to each picture or
posterand in one case, to her
legsas she says associated words so
that students can link words with their
visual representations.
Hands-on materials
Although no students in the classroom lesson
described here chose to use hands-on materi-
als to solve the Chickens and Pigs problem, use
of this option allows students to explore math-
ematical thinking with the aid of concrete models.
Manipulatives can be helpful to all students and
especially to ELLs by minimizing and supporting
a tasks language requirements. Just as visual aids
are important, manipulatives expand the range of
senses students use to process concepts.
Language support
ELLs, as well as other students, benet from teach-
ing methods that help develop language skills. Mrs.
Higgins uses several techniques to serve this pur-
pose. Students engage in a great deal of discussion
in a variety of settings with peers and the teacher.
484 Teaching Children Mathematics / April 2008
They also have an opportunity to exercise their
language arts skills with peer assistance by writing
answers with supporting explanations for problems
and composing their own word problems.
Students are allowed to speak in their rst lan-
guage for a few minutes now and then as they seek
to understand concepts in that language before
doing so in English. Vocabulary development is
encouraged by associating visual aids with Eng-
lish words. To strengthen vocabulary connections,
Mrs. Higgins asks students at one point if they
know two key words (chicken, pig) in another lan-
guage. Vocabulary building includes constructing
meanings for everyday and mathematics terminol-
ogy, as well as multiple word meanings, of such
words as quarter or table. Moschkovich cautions
that language should be considered broader than
vocabulary alone and that instruction should also
focus on how students generalize, abstract, and
describe patterns, rather than only on how students
use individual words (2007, p. 98). She advises
teachers to focus on the resources that ELLs bring
to the mathematics classroom, including use of
various modes of communication (e.g., gestures,
objects, and rst language) in addition to math-
ematical thinking.
Classroom climate
Mrs. Higginss classroom has numerous features
conducive to creating a positive classroom cli-
mate, which is vitally important for the academic
and emotional well-being of all students. This is,
of course, of particular concern for ELLs, whose
cultural and linguistic backgrounds may not match
that of the majority of students or the teachers
instructional style. Mrs. Higgins facilitates a com-
munal, student-centered environment in which
students work together and are responsible for
assessing and defending their own work and that of
their peers. She solicits, and thus values, different
ways of thinking.
Students in Mrs. Higginss classroom spend
much time interacting, and ELLs are placed in
pairs within groups so they are not isolated. Work-
ing in small groups allows students to test their
ideas in safe settings, building their condence to
speak later in whole-class settings. Students are
also permitted to go to the board in pairs, which
raises students comfort levels with sharing ideas
publicly. Mrs. Higgins uses several techniques
to acknowledge and validate students, such as
personalizing word problems with student names
(with attention to gender balance), allowing
students to speak their rst language as needed,
and asking the class to provide some key words
in other languages. Brain-based research indi-
cates that emotions, such as feelings of respect
and acceptance, are vitally important to memory
(Daz-Rico and Weed 2002).
Conclusion
Although word problems pose greater language
demands, they also encourage more meaningful
problem solving and mathematics understand-
ing. With proper instructional support, a student-
centered, investigative approach to contextualized
problem solving benets all students. The type of
support discussed in this article demonstrates such
an approach, which is particularly important for
better serving the English language learners in our
classrooms.
References
Anstrom, Kris. Preparing Secondary Education Teach-
ers to Work with English Language Learners: Math-
ematics. Washington, DC: The George Washington
University Center for the Study of Language and
Education, 1999. (ERIC Document Reproduction No.
ED439618.)
Daz-Rico, Lynne T., and Kathryn Z. Weed. The Cross-
cultural, Language, and Academic Development
Handbook: A Complete K12 Reference Guide. Bos-
ton: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.
Harniss, Mark K., Douglas W. Carnine, Jerry Silbert, and
Robert C. Dixon. Effective Strategies for Teaching
Mathematics. In Effective Strategies That Accom-
modate Diverse Learners, 2nd ed., edited by Edward
J. Kameenui, Douglas W. Carnine, Robert C. Dixon,
Deborah C. Simmons, and Michael D. Coyne, pp.
12148. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2002.
Moschkovich, Judit. Bilingual Mathematics Learners:
How Views of Language, Bilingual Learners, and
Mathematical Communication Affect Instruction. In
Improving Access to Mathematics: Diversity and Eq-
uity in the Classroom, edited by Nailah Suad Nasir
and Paul Cobb. New York: Teachers College Press,
2007.
National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisi-
tion and Language Instruction Educational Programs
(NCELA). The Growing Numbers of Limited English
Procient Students, 19942005. Washington, DC:
NCELA, 2006.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.
Reston, VA: NCTM, 2000.
The author would like to thank Heidi J. Higgins for
teaching this lesson and Carol Ann Kahler for allow-
ing the lesson to take place in her classroom. s