Integration of English Language subject and
Math subject in one lesson:
Best practice in Omair Bin Abi Waqaas School (Al-Ghad Schools)–Grade 3
Submitted by: Laila Mohebi & Noura Murad
Adult Development & Collaborative Learning
210ADC106 (Sec. 01)
Fall 2010
Table of content
Introduction
3
Madares Al Ghad vision
3
Madares Al Ghad mission
3
Madares Al Ghad values
3
Best practice
4
Integrating subjects goals
5
The advantages
6
The achievements
6
The challenges
6
Conclusion
6
Worksheets
7
Students work
8
2
Introduction:
The Madares Al Ghad (MAG) program initiated in public schools by the Ministry of
Education to develop bilingual UAE nationals, started in 2008 and it is implement till
now in 50 of government schools. The program concentrates on teaching English
language in EFL context, so English is integrated with other subjects such as math and
science. The Ministry of Education decided to implement the program for three years
across primary and secondary stages. However, it was extended to this year, so this is
the fourth year for the program. The curriculum also was designed to move from rotebased pedagogy, widely known in most government schools, to a student-centered
teaching approach. English speaking teachers were brought by the Ministry of Education
from different countries such as America, Europe to guarantee language proficiency.
Madares Al Ghad vision:

Create schools that prepare students to be active UAE citizens in the
international, academic, business and social arena.
Madares Al Ghad mission:

Create a curriculum that is competitive internationally.

Produce bilingual students who are prepared for tertiary education at the end of
grade 12.

Develop a school environment that is student centered.
Madares Al Ghad values:

All students can learn.

Professional educators are committed to helping all students learn.
3
Best practice
We are here tackling one aspect of Al-Ghad school which is integration English with
other subjects such as math and science. In the past three years Noura Murad taught
English, math and science, where she accumulated great experience in integrating
English with math and science, in addition to this year’s integration of two subjects in
one lesson which are English and Math.
We will outline here one particular lesson to clarify the aspect of integration and its
uniqueness when compared to non integrated lessons.
The lesson we want to focus on was conducted on 26th & 27th October, 2010 and each
lesson was forty five to fifty five minutes. The students of grade 3 in Omair Bin Abi
Waqaas School (Al-Ghad Schools) are the subjects of this practice. They are 19 students
and their ages are between 8 to 9 years old. The materials used in lessons are
whiteboard, resources provided by ministry, realia, worksheets, books, note books,
ongoing assessment sheet and games.
The first lesson was about teaching 2D shapes in English where the students knew the
shapes names such as (triangle, rectangle, square, rhombus, pentagon, hexagon,
trapezoid and circle). As well as knowing how many sides and how many corners each
shape has. (See the worksheet and students work)
The second lesson was about the tally mark where the students knew how to read and
write the tally marks to count things. In the classroom there were four groups (lions,
sharks, brown bears and pumas). The tally mark was about “how do you go to school?”
each group had one way to get to school such as car, bus, and bicycle and by walking.
Each group had to walk around the other groups to draw the tally mark, then they wrote
it on the big wall chart and each group presented their results. (See students work).
In these activities the teacher considered the students level and used differentiation and
provided methods and scaffolding for the vary needs. The teacher used challenging
questions and activities for the bright students and used simple worksheets and
questions for the weaker ones. The lessons were adapting from the curriculum and
4
changes on the content were made to meet students’ level. Ongoing assessments were
used to evaluate the students’ progress.
The outcomes of the two lessons were:

Acquired the language. (2-D shapes)

Read and wrote the given material. (tally marks)

Read the names of the shapes fluently.

Spoke and pronounced the names and words accurately.

Reinforced specific areas and retained what the students had learnt in shapes
and tally marks.

Met the objectives set by the Ministry.

Taught the students how to use English to express Mathematical concepts.

Understood concepts and used them effectively.

Rose academic achievements.
Why integrating:
The goal of integrating math with English is to allow children to learn a language
through doing ‘real’ tasks. Generally, EFL teaching focuses specifically on the language
to be learned whereas teaching through content ‘CLIL’ Content and Language
Integrated Learning focuses on both building language skills at the same time as
teaching content. Other purpose is to reinforce specific skills and content across the
curriculum through activities. When students are making or creating things that
incorporate content from other subject areas, they are better able to integrate and
retain what they are learning.
5
The advantages:
The advantage of mixing the subjects is that students have more exposure to the
language and that they begin to use the language naturally as they complete
activities/tasks.
The achievements

Many students acquire good English language.

English results in the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) are
better than math results.
The challenges
There are some difficulties that we are facing in this program and they are:

Planning should include not only math content objectives but also the specific
language that will be needed for each task.

If teachers are trained only in one area, e.g. math, they may not have sufficient
skills to teach English or vice versa.

The curriculums (English book and math book) are difficult for students level, the
level of the curriculums meets native speakers not our students.

The Ministry of Education should provide English courses for math teachers to
guarantee successful results.
6
Conclusion:
In conclusion, integrating English with math has a great result in improving students’
language but the dilemma is that the students have difficulties in understanding all
math jargons. Also, the curriculum that is provided by the ministry is above students’
level.
Our recommendation is to provide a curriculum that meets students’ level to acquire
the language. In addition to have English training for math teachers to guarantee great
results in both English language and math.
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Worksheets
8
Students work
9