Hello there!
As an extension of my previous blog post about knowing the difference between (and separately assessing) an Emerging Bilingual’s academic content knowledge and English language proficiency, I am going to outline & summarize the SIOP model. If you are not familiar, “the goal of the SIOP model is to prepare teachers in helping ELLs to navigate the dual challenges of learning subject-area skills and content and learning language through building students’ background knowledge, making content comprehensible, and attending to other key components of sheltered instruction” (Daniel and Conlin, 2015). The authors also note in this article, titled Shifting Attention Back to Students Within the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, that perhaps the SIOP model focuses too heavily on the role of the teacher and that it needs to be more student-centered. They suggest that attention to and ability to respond to students’ contributions and needs in real-time be added to the eight components of the SIOP checklist. Yes, the SIOP model began as a checklist (or observational protocol, if you will)! Teachers are meant to review their own learning space and practices to critically self-evaluate. I love lists, so let’s have a look:
The full SIOP checklist can be found HERE.
I also think that another long-term strategy to maximize district capacity is to invest in existing staff. Pro-D and training for the teachers that we already have directly supports the concept of collective efficacy as well as peer-mentoring and support when new teachers do arrive. Meet classroom teachers where they’re at. Teachers are generally comfortable writing content objectives for lessons, so let’s also help them integrate language objectives as well! This supports ELLs and students that might have differentiated learning styles. Again, as Daniel and Conlin wrote in the article linked above, this is indeed teacher-focused. But I do think that in order to have informed teachers that are trained to see when and how students need explicit support and can apply specific protocols and frameworks is a worthy investment in time and money. Furthermore, if there is collective buy-in and support from Administration, then it becomes a school-wide culture of support.
Do you have experience with SIOP or other kinds of sheltered-instruction? If not currently, which components do you feel would have the most impact in your current situation/learning space?
As an extension of my previous blog post about knowing the difference between (and separately assessing) an Emerging Bilingual’s academic content knowledge and English language proficiency, I am going to outline & summarize the SIOP model. If you are not familiar, “the goal of the SIOP model is to prepare teachers in helping ELLs to navigate the dual challenges of learning subject-area skills and content and learning language through building students’ background knowledge, making content comprehensible, and attending to other key components of sheltered instruction” (Daniel and Conlin, 2015). The authors also note in this article, titled Shifting Attention Back to Students Within the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, that perhaps the SIOP model focuses too heavily on the role of the teacher and that it needs to be more student-centered. They suggest that attention to and ability to respond to students’ contributions and needs in real-time be added to the eight components of the SIOP checklist. Yes, the SIOP model began as a checklist (or observational protocol, if you will)! Teachers are meant to review their own learning space and practices to critically self-evaluate. I love lists, so let’s have a look:
- Preparing lessons with content and language objectives and meaningful activities and materials.
- Building background knowledge of students through linking concepts with prior knowledge and emphasizing key vocabulary.
- Providing comprehensible input with clear speech and a variety of techniques.
- Using strategies to scaffold and question learners and get them to practice learning strategies.
- Providing opportunities for student interaction.
- Developing manipulatives and activities for students to practice and apply content and language knowledge.
- Delivering the objective-aligned lesson with appropriate pacing and high student engagement.
- Reviewing key concepts and vocabulary and assessing student comprehension. (p. 171)
The full SIOP checklist can be found HERE.
I also think that another long-term strategy to maximize district capacity is to invest in existing staff. Pro-D and training for the teachers that we already have directly supports the concept of collective efficacy as well as peer-mentoring and support when new teachers do arrive. Meet classroom teachers where they’re at. Teachers are generally comfortable writing content objectives for lessons, so let’s also help them integrate language objectives as well! This supports ELLs and students that might have differentiated learning styles. Again, as Daniel and Conlin wrote in the article linked above, this is indeed teacher-focused. But I do think that in order to have informed teachers that are trained to see when and how students need explicit support and can apply specific protocols and frameworks is a worthy investment in time and money. Furthermore, if there is collective buy-in and support from Administration, then it becomes a school-wide culture of support.
Do you have experience with SIOP or other kinds of sheltered-instruction? If not currently, which components do you feel would have the most impact in your current situation/learning space?