EDU 543: SIOP Model Chapter Reading Notes Format

Name: Alyssa Fisk

The purpose of writing these notes is to dig deeper into SIOP instructional planning and know and
remember how to apply this model to your instructional practice. Please answer in a comprehensive
manner and apply and provide examples from your own instructional practice and fieldwork
observations.

Chapter 1: SIOP Overview

What does SIOP mean?
Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
Explain the SIOP Model?
An approach to teach English Language learners in strategic ways that will help to make the subject
matter comprehensible while promoting the students’ English language development.
List and explain the components of SIOP.
1. Lesson preparation 5. Interaction
2. Building background 6. Practice/application
3. Comprehensible input 7. Lesson delivery
4. Strategies 8. Review/assessment
Review Appendix A and summarize your learning.
Appendix A seems to provide a way to self-assess your lessons plans. It covers lesson preparedness,
Building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interactions, practice, application, lesson delivery, and
review and assessment. All aspects are covered and can be rated 0-4, 4 being the most sufficient.

Describe/explain task analysis. What is backwards planning and how does it apply to lesson planning? How
does backwards planning apply to instructional planning?
The purpose of Task analysis/backwards planning is to ensure that instruction leads to student success on the
final assessment. A predetermined assessment helps to keep the lesson on track and focused on the final
outcome. By determining the final outcome first, we can better prepare for our instructional planning, ensuring
that it leads students to success.

Chapter 2: Preparation

Explain differentiated instruction.

Differentiated instruction is important in our classrooms because all of our students come to us with a variety of
backgrounds, abilities, learning styles, and English proficiency. Differentiating instructions means that we are
taking all of this into consideration and created modifications, clear instructions, suppling supplementary
materials, and using meaningful activities that create a learning environment set up for success.

List and explain the six preparation components of SIOP differentiation of instruction (p. 8-9).
1. Clearly defined content objectives
2. Clearly defined language objectives
3. Appropriate content concepts for students’ age and background
4. Supplementary materials used to a high degree
5. Adaptations of content to all levels of student proficiency
6. Meaningful activities that integrate lesson concepts.
How does scaffolding help a student? Provide 2-3 examples.
Scaffolding helps students by giving them the extra support in the lessons, as the lesson continue, the teacher
gradually works the student towards independence by taking away some of the help. Some scaffolding
strategies are modeling, repetition, and paraphrasing. It is important to be very transparent about scaffolding so
the students understand why and what makes it helpful.

Chapter 3: Building Background

Why is background information about students so important?

Knowing background information about students is important because this is how students connect to
new material. When student can connect new material to existing knowledge they create schemata, this helps
commit the new information to memory. Without any prior knowledge or background information, students
have a hard time connecting and understanding the lesson.

How do you build background information for ELL students who have various funds of knowledge from
different cultural backgrounds?
Teachers can explicitly provide background knowledge by provind video clips, hands on material,
photos, or literature books. These examples help students to relate and connect the new information even if the
students had no prior knowledge.

Explain components of background information.

1. Concepts explicitly linked to students’ background experiences
a. It is important for students to share, talk about, or remember any experience they may have had
that connects to the lesson.
2. Link explicitly made between past learning and new concepts
a. If there was a previous lesson that connects it is important and helpful to have students remember
and connect to the lesson and build upon that knowledge.
3. Key vocabulary emphasized
a. If the lesson has key vocabulary that is new or lesson specific, these words as well as their
definitions and examples, should be presented first to help the make the lesson more
comprehensible.

Provide 2-3 examples of how to build background information.

1. KWL charts- filling in Know and want to know before the lesson starts, this helps activate prior
knowledge.
2. Pretest with a partner- the pretest should be very similar to the posttest. Letting students do a pretest
activates prior knowledge about what they already know as wellas gives the students an idea about what
is to come in the lesson.
3. Four corner vocabulary- students work with vocabulary words that are specific to the lesson, creating
pictures, sentences, definitions, and writing the word

Chapter 4: Comprehensible Input

What is comprehensible Input? Summarize p. 49-50.

Comprehensible input means providing instruction that is clear understandable to your students. This
means you speak clearly and a moderate speed, use hand gestures and body language. Expectations and
instructions need to be given in a very clear and deliberate manner, both orally and physically modeled.

Explain components of comprehensible input on p. 50

1. Speech appropriate for student proficiency levels (slower rate and pronunciation)
2. Clear expectation of academic tasks
3. A variety of techniques to make content concepts clear. (modeling, visuals, hands on experiences)
Explain the levels of language acquisition
• Beginning (pre-production: little comprehension of oral or written English and unable to produce much.
• Beginning (early production): ELs have limited English comprehension
• Beginning (Early speech emergence): Els can speak in simple sentences and comprehend high
contextualized oral and written English.
• Intermediate (Early): Students at this level have some proficiency
• Intermediate: Els have proficiency in communicating ideas and comprehending contextualized
information in English
• Early advanced: communicate well, have good comprehension of information, and have adequate
vocabulary.
• Advanced: nearly native speech fluency, very good comprehension

Describe three Comprehensible Input strategies and explain how and why they work. Also show how they could
be used at two different stages of language acquisition.
1. Move it!: is a great way to connect kinesthetic learners by using physical movement to answer, learn,
and describe the parts of the lesson. For example, having students get up and move and “orbit” as the
planets do.
2. Idiom matchup: when practicing/reviewing idioms have students match of the sayings with the actual
meanings. Make it a fun game.
3. Every student gets a chance: Teacher writes a new concept on the board and reads it aloud, then asks a
student volunteer to read it aloud, before moving on call on several students to read it aloud. This gives
the students a chance to heat it several times and even try it themselves.

Chapter 5 Strategies
List and explain the strategies component of SIOP.
The strategies component is what focuses on the cognitive and metacognitive strategies that the
learner uses to make sense of new information and concepts. It is our job to make sure we implement
different kinds of strategies for the variety of learners and concepts. These strategies could include
rereading, note taking, or clarifying, to name just a few. By teaching these strategies, we are teaching
our students to develop strategic thinking. The strategy components/features include:
 Ample opportunities provided for students to use learning strategies
 Scaffolding techniques consistently used, assisting and supporting student understanding
 A variety of questions or tasks that promote higher-order thinking skills

When do we teach the content standards?

We should always be connecting content standards.

How do teachers provide scaffolding for L2 students?

Examples of instructional scaffolding may include: graphic organizers, adapted texts, partially
completed outlines, to name a few. Verbal scaffolding can be done by using think-aloud, paraphrasing,
repetition, and enunciations.

List and describe 5 ideas or activities for Teaching L2 students.

1. Directed reading-thinking activity
a. Ask questions prior to reading to help students make predictions by using clues such as picture
clues and titles.
2. Questioning Prompts for Different Levels of Language Acquisition
 a. Making sure to ask questions that promote the deeper level thinking, remembering that a
students’ reading proficiency does not reflect their level of thinking skills.
3. Question-Answer Relationships
a. Building comprehension strategies by using 4 questions
i. “right there” means it’s a literal question, students will need to find it in the text.
ii. “think and search” is also literal, the answer is in the text, but it may be spread out in
different sentences or paragraphs
iii. “author and me” these questions require the student to use prior knowledge and
experience
iv. “On my own” requires students to use own background and experiences
4. Progressive maps
a. Encourages students to visually organize old and new information
5. T-chart graphic organizer
a. A great way to visually classify information into groupings/sorts

What is the difference between cognitive and metacognitive strategies?

Cognitive strategies promote the thinking while the strategy or activity is happening, while
metacognition is thinking about thinking. Metacognitive strategies are promoting students to think and plan how
they are going to do something before it happens or even after it happens.

Chapter 6: Interaction

List and describe/explain interaction components.

Teachers that are effectively using the SIOP model try to limit the amount of teacher talk and lectures,
this gives more opportunity for students to have interaction in the English language. EL students need to be
provided with many opportunities to use the English Language in class, this can be done through reading and
writing but most effective when there is verbal interaction with the teacher, partner, small group, or whole
group discussions.

Provide five examples and explain how each strategy works and why it is important.
1. Is it complete
a. Promotes students’ language by having them work with partners to construct complete sentences
to answer the question provided by the teacher.
2. Dinner Party
a. A fun way to promote comprehension while using language. Students assume the persona of
characters in a story. This character is to invite other characters. The students create improv or
scripts of how these characters would interact and must also include why they invited certain
characters and why they would be eating the certain food.
3. Jigsaw What You Know
a. Benefits students by working collaboratively in groups to come up with what they know about a
particular subject and then piecing it together with others.
4. Take a Stand
a. Focuses on students listening and comprehension, teacher will ask a question and students stand
if they agree, to promote language they may need to also explain their reasoning for their stand
5. Great Performances
a. In this activity students recreate by acting out significant parts of the story or historical events,
requiring them to recall, comprehend, plan, collaborate, and use speech.
Chapter 7: Practice and Application
Explain three features of the practice and application component.
1. Hands-on materials and or manipulatives provided for students to practice using new content knowledge
2. Activities provided for students to apply content and language knowledge in the classroom
3. Activities integrate all language skills. Ex: reading, writing, listening, and speaking

Explain 3 activities for getting L2 students to practice their language skills.

1. Are you sleeping: in this activity, students pick a familiar song or poem in which they know the rhythm
and melody to. The students use this to recreate a song or poem using vocabulary words related to the
unit content. This gives the students a fun and creative way to apply what they and practice it.
2. Go Graphic for Expository Texts: This activity provides students with a visual and organized thought
process by using graphic organizers. Teaching students to use a graphic organizer to find main idea,
supporting details, conclusions, etc. can be very helpful to organizing and understanding their own
thinking. They can also use cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequencing, problem & solution, etc.
3. Virginia Reel: This activity gives students the chance to review or practice newly learned material. The
students line up facing each other, one student gives a clue or question and then gives the second student
a chance to respond.

Chapter 8: Lesson Delivery

Describe three key elements of good lesson delivery.
1. Content and language objectives are clearly supported through the lesson delivery
2. Students are engaged 90-100% of the period
3. Pacing of the lesson is appropriate for the students’ ability level

Provide three examples and suggest why they are supportive of lesson delivery.
1. Stand up-sit down: This activity gives students the opportunity to respond to true or false statements.
This activity is gets students activity involved because it requires their physical involvement while
showing their comprehension in a game like manner.
2. Chunk and chew: this gives students the opportunity to take the lesson parts at a time, ensuring their
understanding and comprehension one section at a time. This helps to make sure they are understanding
before moving on and lowers the likelihood of an overwhelming amount of information at a time.
3. Take Your Corners: this activity always students to show their opinion in a non threatening way
through physical movement. The physical movement aspect keeps students engaged and also allows the
teacher to get answers and opinions from all students.

Chapter 9: Review and Assessment

What are the key features of EL assessment?
1. Comprehensive review of key vocabulary
2. Comprehensive review of key content concepts
3. Regular feedback provided to students on their output
4. Assessment of student comprehension and learning of all lesson objectives throughout the lesson.

Provide three examples that would likely use for grades K-3
1. Share Bear: The students pass around a stuffed animal taking turns responding to an open ended
questions. This assessment allows student to deepen there thinking and explain why they feel this way.
This type of assessment allows the teacher to walk around, listen, assess, and give feedback to students.
2. Sign In, Please: students respond to true or false questions by using the sign language T or F to indicate
their answer. This allows the students to respond in a way that is not threatening and allows the teacher
to assess through the lesson the students’ comprehension level.
3. Number 1-3 For Self-Assessment of Objectives: This is a great way to assess the class for a lesson,
because it not only gives the teacher an idea of how the students are understanding, but it requires the
 students to self-assess their own understanding. The students simply put up 1, 2, or 3 fingers to show
wheat level of understanding they feel they are at.

Provide three examples for students in grades 4-6

1. Simultaneous Round Table: As students sits with groups or at their tables they each take turns
responding on a paper to both the question provided by the teacher, as well as the answers their fellow
group members provided.
2. Find Someone Who: Is often used as an ice breaker for students to get to know each other, but in this
case it could work well if using questions about the lesson. Students are physically moving around the
room to find other people that know the answer to the questions on the sheet provided.
3. Numbered Heads Together with a Review Sheet: In this activity students work in groups to answer
the question the teacher reads out. Once the correct answer is given, the students fill it out on their
review sheet.

10: Chapter analysis Reflection: Provide an overall reflection on your learning about teaching L2 learners
(approx. 1 pg). Include 3-5 major points you have mastered through this L2 learning analysis.

The most crucial aspect to remember when teaching English Language Learners is making sure they are
getting involved. Three efficient and effective ways to get them involved that encourages and promotes their
content attainment is through communication, movement, and clarity. These three points may seem broad but
they all have very particular and important goals to skills to develop.
This first is communication, this is a very broad topic. I have observed English Language Learners,
ELLs, go through an entire day without answering questions, talking with neighbors, or practicing the English
language, let alone the academic language. This is huge! This is why it is important that we are actively
incorporating activities that will get all of our students talking and using their voices in an effective way.
Majority of the activities suggested have our students working in pairs, groups, or whole class to share ideas,
thoughts, opinions, and comments. These kinds of interaction do not only benefit the ELL students in our
classes, these activities are beneficial for all students. We must be providing as many opportunities as possible
for our students to develop and practice their academic language and for our ELLs to develop English language
skills as well.
The second major point I have chosen is movement. Movement can be incorporated in so many different
ways; from something as simple as using their hands to signal an answer or standing up to activity like the
conga line or four corners that have students up and moving and responding to classroom discussions. One way
to involve movement into your lesson plans is integrating VAPA and common core standards. The movement
while learning new vocabulary helps students to make a different kind of connection to vocabulary words our
concepts that may not have been comprehended or attainable before. Movement, body language, and facial
expression are nearly universal, we can use this to our advantage as teachers to help make lessons connect with
our students and keep them engaged.
The last one I have chosen is clarity. This could not be stressed enough; clear and simple instructions are
key to all lessons. Clarity in expectations and instructions help students comprehend and remember the steps in
which they are expected to take. Example activities such as “Chunk and Chew” show a way in which teachers
can make each section of the content clear before moving on. Too many instructions or giving too much
information at one time creates and overload and many students, especially our ELL, will have a hard time
keeping up.
Overall, we want our lessons to keep students engaged and active by giving many opportunities to talk
and move, as well as making sure our instructions are clear short and to the point.