In my Maths lesson last week, my year 7's were learning about Prime Numbers. With it being bi-lingual classes that I am in, obviously English and Spanish are spoken. The Maths teacher is called Antonio, and his English is ok, but he does stutter quite a bit - he is a new teacher at the school and I think it is mostly down to nerves. He knows what he is talking about but can't quite communicate this effectively in English to the students - so this is where I step in.
Since I learned about Prime Numbers back in primary school, I knew what they were, and so I sort of took over the class to explain clearly, in English, what they were. I then got students to write down and memorise the phrase 'A prime number is a number that can only be divided by 1 and itself'. Quite simple, but effective. We then did some exercices on the blackboard, and I got some of the kids to come to the front of the class and write down the workings out and the answer to the questions on the board, and explain why the number was or wasn't a Prime Number, with the phrase I gave them. Eventually, the kids could remember the phrase without looking at the blackboard, so in many ways this was a success. I think I drilled it into them enough anyway, and I hope that they can remember this for their exam at the end of the year.
Antonio commented afterwards that he thought it was a good lesson too, so it might be that I take over more of the lessons we have together, and explain in English what the equations mean, if I can understand them myself.
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