Every once in a while at our staff meetings, the principal of my school gives us a gentle reminder/nudge to recall the SIOP training we have all been through and encourages us to incorporate these strategies into our lessons.
What is SIOP?
It stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol.
What does that mean?
Essentially it is a series of strategies or parts to incorporate into lessons in order to help students access the material and make content more meaningful.
Who does it help?
All students, but primarily ELL students or students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds who may not be familiar with some mainstream concepts and/or the English language.
There are 8 main components that a great SIOP lesson should include:
- Preparation: Language and content objectives, adaptation of content, use of materials
- Building background: Links to prior learning and background experience
- Comprehensible input: Making content accessible through clear speech and explanations
- Strategies: Scaffolding and questioning techniques
- Interaction: Grouping configurations to enhance discussion
- Practice/application: Activities to integrate content and language objectives
- Lesson delivery: Student engagement and lesson pacing
- Review/assessments: Focus on content and language objectives, progress, and feedback.
In other words, teachers should acknowledge the diverse backgrounds of students and incorporate ideas that are familiar to them into lessons. Making sure to connect to something the student already knows helps to facilitate further learning. It is important to clearly identify what you a student is expected to learn in a given lesson and how they will demonstrate they have succeeded.
For example:
Content objective: Students will understand that animals live in different types of habitats.
Language objective: Students will be able to name three animals and the type of habitat they live in. Students will use the sentence frame:
The ______ lives in the _______.
The fish lives in the pond.
This helps the students to know what is expected of them and providing a sentence frame helps them to be successful. Teachers should also make sure to use plenty of visuals and speak at a pace that matches the level of English the students have. Demonstrations, pantomimes, and pictures are wonderful tools to use.
Additionally, teachers should not be the only ones talking! If our goal is for students to acquire more English, they need to practice! For every ten minutes of teacher talk, students should have at least 2 minutes to share with partners or groups. Teachers can also use scaffolding as a way to slowly allow students to become more independent in their learning. A good model is:
I do
We do
You do
During the "I do" the teacher will instruct and explain and demonstrate what the students should do.
During the "we do" the students and the teacher perform the task. This may happen with the use of partners or small groups.
During the "you do" phase, the students complete the given task independently. Providing students with opportunities to practice skills in a hands on manner is always necessary in establishing mastery of knowledge and skills.
Finally, I have learned that it is so important to just listen to students. They bring so many different and unique experiences and stories to the classroom community and I will only be able to meet their diverse needs when I truly know them and what they are bringing to the table. Some families/children may not be comfortable sharing, however if they are, so much can be learned that can only enhance teaching!
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