Snack and Solve: Pilot program at Katherine Johnson Middle School boosts math confidence for multilingual students

Over the course of six weeks, a small group of multilingual students at Katherine Johnson Middle School participated in “Snack and Solve,” a math intervention program designed to help build skills and boost confidence in a supportive, low-pressure environment.

The program brought students together for weekly, small-group or one-on-one math sessions led by teachers and community volunteers from the Assistance League Center, all while enjoying some snacks and supportive conversation.

The program was born out of a collaboration between Katherine Johnson’s math and English Language Development (ELD) departments, which identified a need to provide additional academic support to multilingual learners who were struggling with some of their math skills.

Teachers Omneya Gomaa and Mackenzy Ellien helped bring the idea to life.

“We saw that there was a need in our multilingual population,” said Gomaa. “This year, we did math support in our ELD classes. Through working with our students in smaller groups, we realized that a lot of them were having a hard time with basic math. With the math department talking to the ELD department, we realized that there was more we could do to fill that gap.”

Rather than calling it a tutoring club or homework session, the team wanted to create a space that focused on growth and motivation, not necessarily grades.

“What we didn’t want to happen was for students to bring in their grade-level work into these sessions because they were already not meeting grade level, so we needed to be able to bring them up,” Ellien said. “It's all voluntary. It's them wanting to put in the work to learn. And so the only thing that we're giving is that incentive of free snacks.”

Students were selected for the program based on recommendations from their math and ELD teachers. Those who committed to the full six-week series were celebrated with a certificate and a gift card to acknowledge their hard work.

Part of the program’s success was the support from the volunteers, many of whom are retired educators and community members.

“I’ve found that the students are anxious to learn, to show up when they don’t have to, which is always a good thing,” said volunteer Melinda Avey. “They’re a lot more relaxed now, and part of it was getting used to each other.”

Seventh-grade student Abdul was one of the students who attended each session. He said that he enjoyed the program, and would want to do it again if offered. 

“I liked doing work with the teachers. I like to work with them because I like to learn,” he said. 

For students, Ellien said, the benefits went beyond solving equations.

“The biggest thing we see, especially in some of our multilingual learners, is that they are often not comfortable in their own voice, and so they’ll speak really softly or oftentimes not at all. So watching them grow in their own comfort and be willing to use their voice and speak to adults they don’t have a previous relationship with is huge,” Ellien said. 

She said that she has also enjoyed watching the connection between the volunteers and the students. 

“They talk about their families, what they do for fun. One time, they were having a conversation about cooking a goat, and it turned into a whole conversation about traditions. And I think that that's something that's really special,” Ellien said.