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SDAIE:My Definition

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 Language Acquisition Branch

Four Critical Elements of SDAIE

1. CONTENT

Teaching a lesson using SDAIE/Sheltered methodologies involves careful planning to

determine what content is to be learned. Course content is drawn from the California
frameworks and the Content Standards. When teachers have clearly determined the key
concepts and skills to be taught, they are able to focus their efforts on these essential aspects
of the curriculum, thus avoiding details, activities, and discussions which do not support the
objectives and distract, confuse or overwhelm their students.

In addition, teachers need to consider the language needed to construct meaning and
demonstrate acquisition of a concept/skill. When English Learners (ELs) use language to
discuss and process the content, both communicative and academic language develop. In
order for students to successfully communicate their understanding of the content, careful
and differentiated language scaffolding should be provided.

When teachers clearly focus on both content and language and use SDAIE/Sheltered
strategies academic language develops as a result.

When selecting content, teachers must ask themselves the following questions:
a) Are the major concepts and skills identified?
b) Are they specific?
c) Does my lesson delivery support the content and language objectives?
d) Do my scaffolds meet the language proficiency needs of my ELs?
e) Do I select text and other materials that make content clear and meaningful for ELs?

2. CONNECTIONS

Learning takes place when students are actively engaged in an activity in which they are
interested. Students are most interested in learning when they recognize a connection
between what they know and the curriculum, or when they see that the new knowledge will
be useful to them. Meaning is constructed when a connection is made between the
curriculum and the students’ knowledge and personal experiences. It is the teacher’s
responsibility to help build such connections between what is to be learned and what
students already know. Teachers increase meaning when they select examples from
students’ lives that illustrate the key points of the content being learned. To assure that
curriculum is meaningful to students, the teacher must learn what ELs know and be aware of
their experiences and cultural background.

Previous learning influences the acquisition of new learning. When previous learning
positively influences new learning, students transfer concepts, processes, and skills to new
learning situations. For ELs, positive transfer takes place when they apply processes and
skills previously learned to new experiences in English. In such cases new learning is
accelerated.
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Teachers can facilitate positive transfer by using tools, techniques, and procedures which
help ELs make connections with their previous schooling and life experiences. Information
displays such as graphs, charts, maps, pictures, and models, in traditional or appropriate
modern technology, offer immediate access to new content in a familiar format. When
teachers provide opportunities for ELs to use process skills such as Think-Pair-Share, Pull
Out and Talk/Write, brainstorming, hypothesizing, and drawing conclusions, the process
skills can be transferred to the degree to which they were originally learned.

Teachers must be aware that previous learning may also interfere with new learning. When
ELs must read passages for which they are unprepared, they may supply inappropriate
information from past learning in an effort to understand. For example, when reading in
Spanish about a gold rush in South America, English-speaking college students with
knowledge of the California gold rush supplied details from their previous learning when
they did not understand text in Spanish. Since the two events occurred in different times,
places, and circumstances, this transfer of information interfered with comprehension and
led to misunderstanding. Teachers need to be aware of this phenomenon and prepare their
students sufficiently. By using scaffolding devices such as Thinking Maps® or other
advance/graphic organizers, teachers assist students in discovering relationships between
previous and new knowledge, provide support, and help them sustain new academic growth.

Connecting the content of the lesson to previous learning requires that the teacher carefully
organize the content so that each lesson builds upon previous lessons. Teachers may need to
use texts and materials selectively in order to effectively connect new learning to the
students’ prior learning and to make content more meaningful.

When planning to connect the curriculum with student experiences, teachers must ask
themselves the following questions:

a) Do I link concepts and skills to ELs’ experiences?

b) Do I select and elicit examples from students’ lives that illustrate key points?
c) Do I display information in a variety of formats, such as maps, graphs, charts,
pictures, models, etc.?
d) Do I provide opportunities for ELs to use process skills such as hypothesizing,
organizing, categorizing, drawing conclusions, etc.?
e) Do I prepare students for new learning by teaching key concepts, previewing critical
aspects, and reviewing related past learning?
f) Do I use scaffolding devices such as outlines, Thinking Maps®, or other advanced
graphic organizers, to help ELs organize ideas and make meaningful connections
between previous and new learning, and to support and sustain new academic
learning?
g) Do I organize content so it is related from lesson to lesson?
h) Do I select text and other materials that make connection with previous learning?

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3. COMPREHENSIBILITY

Students at Beginning and Early Intermediate proficiency levels have limited comprehension
in English. This limitation would necessitate teachers to rely on the use of primary language
support and content-based ELD to increase access to core content for these students. This
support is especially critical when teaching complex skills and abstract concepts.

The intent of SDAIE is to optimally make grade-level content accessible to ELs at the
Intermediate-Advanced proficiency levels. Teachers need to be aware of the potential causes
of misunderstanding when preparing lessons and when attempting to clear up
confusion that has occurred. Communication can be successful when word meanings are
clear, concepts are understood, context-specific details are provided, and values that
motivate thought and action are understood.

When designing comprehensible lessons for students of varying levels of language

proficiency, the teacher must use as many extra-linguistic clues such as pictures and lesson
modifications as necessary to ensure understanding. When teachers carefully combine visual
clues directly with verbal or written communication, they increase the likelihood that
students will understand the English messages. Teachers can use several techniques to
facilitate student comprehension: (a) adjust speech, (b) use extra linguistic clues, and (c)
check for comprehension.
a) Adjust speech. Teachers may need to modify their speech by adjusting from their
customary native speech patterns to a native-to-non-native pattern. This adjustment
may be made by enunciating more clearly than usual, or controlling the range and
diversity of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions used. New key words should be
repeated in different contexts, charted and posted. Idiomatic expressions, when used,
should be written out and explained as clearly as possible and used in many examples
consistent with the lesson’s context.

Some questions to ask about one’s own patterns of speech in the classroom are:
1) Do I enunciate clearly?
2) Do I control the range and diversity of my vocabulary?
3) Do I control my use of idiomatic expressions?
4) Do I teach and write idiomatic expressions and use them in a consistent
manner?
5) Do I repeat and write new key words and expressions?
6) Do I use many different examples to teach new concepts?
b) Use extra linguistic clues such as realia, pictures, models, diagrams, gestures,
charts, labels, and dramatizations. When using visual clues it is important to: (1)
provide as many clues as necessary, which may be more than is required for native
English speakers; and (2) make a one-to-one correspondence between the spoken or
written concept and the clue, such as pointing to an item at the moment you say its

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name. Teachers should refer to clues until students have made a clear connection
between the concept and the visual clue. Visual clues should clearly illustrate the
concept. Carefully selected clues can lower students’ anxiety and increase
comprehension.

Teachers may ask themselves the following questions to determine the quality of
their clues:
1) Do I use extra linguistic clues to facilitate student comprehension?
2) Do I use many and varied clues?
3) Do I make one-to-one correspondence between the clue and the concept
being taught?
4) Do I repeat clues as needed and requested?
5) Do the clues I select illustrate the concept clearly?
c) Check for comprehension. Teachers should continuously monitor for listening and
reading comprehension. Monitoring enables teachers to determine students’ level of
understanding so that adjustments can be made to further clarify the content. Asking
students to indicate comprehension with, for example, a thumbs-up or thumbs-down
signal when asked if agree or disagree, gives the teacher an immediate check. For
more complex ideas, asking students to paraphrase learning to other students orally,
dramatically, graphically, or in written form provides an opportunity for the teacher
to monitor whether additional information or examples are needed. Meaning is
negotiated through constant teacher-student discourse.
When checking for comprehension, teachers may evaluate their ability to provide
students with specific and helpful feedback by asking themselves the following
questions:
1) Do I check for comprehension frequently and effectively?
2) Is the feedback I offer immediate, specific, and related to the lesson concepts?
3) Do I use a variety of methods to check for comprehension?

4. INTERACTION

Learning is facilitated in an interactive classroom that offers opportunities for students to

talk with the teacher and with each other about the lesson, key concepts, and their own
questions about the text. The more frequent the interaction, the greater the learning. Such
discussion facilitates learning new information, negotiating meanings, and developing new
concepts. It offers an opportunity for teachers to assess students’ knowledge levels, monitor
student growth and comprehension, and adjust the lesson as necessary.

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Teachers promote classroom interaction by orchestrating tasks so that students must use
language. Student groups may be arranged in a variety of ways for different activities.
When students are learning new and difficult concepts and skills, grouping ELs of the same
language together enables them to use their primary language to better construct meaning,
clarify new concepts, and identify questions and concerns. Grouping ELs with English
speakers facilitates the completion of tasks which require application of key concepts and
skills. For each student to benefit from any type of group interaction, the teacher must
assure that group process strategies are taught and reinforced.

An equally important component of classroom interaction is the role of questioning. Both

students and the teacher should be asked and respond to a variety of questions. Students
should have appropriate time for thinking and responding. Questioning among students and
between students and teacher establishes a relationship of informational equality and should
be planned as part of each lesson. For some questions, the answer will be known or easily
determined by the students and teacher. In other cases, neither the students nor the teachers
will know the answer, but through discussion, plausible answers may be developed, tested,
applied, and evaluated.

English learners acquire and use academic language when participating in interactive
activities that require them to apply new content knowledge. Cooperative and collaborative
discussion groups, paired reading activities, writing activities, and journals which allow for
self-reflection all promote the growth of academic language. Successful communication in
English provides its own positive reinforcement. Teachers will contribute to students’
language development by modeling good language use.

For example, if a student asks, “Can you want me to do it?” the teacher may restate, “Do I
want you to do it?” and then answer, “Yes, I want you to complete this assignment today.”
When teachers model in this way they provide immediate and positive feedback, which
enables students to clarify language use for future interaction. Furthermore, providing
students with sentence frames/starters appropriate to their proficiency level also supports
students’ development of academic language and register.

To ensure student interest, teachers must select activities that allow students to interact
successfully with the content regardless of their developmental level of English proficiency.
Authentic, or real-life activities give students opportunities to use knowledge by speaking,
writing or making products and ensure interaction in four dimensions: (a) student-to-
teacher; teacher-to-student; (b) student-to-student; (c) student-to-content text/materials; and
(d) student-to-self in reflecting on his/her own learning.

Examples of authentic activities include collecting information for polls or surveys and
analyzing results, writing letters requesting information, experimenting, producing plays or
television programs, participating in simulations, constructing models, making presentations,
authoring books, writing music and lyrics, etc. For self-reflection, dialogue journals and
learning logs are recommended. Teachers may find audio/video recorders and word
processing helpful for some students, especially those at the lower proficiency levels.

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Questions that allow teachers to evaluate their ability to engage students in interactions are:
a) Do I provide many different opportunities for students to talk about the lesson concepts?
b) Do I allow students to clarify key concepts in languages other than English?
c) Do I provide many opportunities for student to write about the course content in many
forms such as graphs, charts, outlines, lists, maps, descriptions, and essays?
d) Do I provide many opportunities for questioning between students and teacher and among
students?
e) Do I plan real-life (authentic) activities that offer opportunities for listening, speaking,
reading, and writing (e.g., collecting information for polls or surveys and analyzing
results, writing letters requesting information, experimenting, producing plays or
television programs, participating in simulations, constructing models, making
presentations, authoring books, writing music and lyrics)?
f) Do I assist students to develop their language by modeling correct usage and providing
scaffolds such as sentence frames/starters?
g) Do I offer positive feedback?
h) Do I provide an environment and activities which assure interaction from: teacher-to-
student? Student-to-teacher? Student to student/small group/class? Student-to
content/text/materials? Student-to-self (e.g., in dialogue journals, audio/video recorders,
learning logs, note taking, student self-questioning)?

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The Critical Elements of SDAIE
Reading

Content Connections

Comprehensibility Interaction
 SDAIE: Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English

SDAIE is a methodology (a set of specific strategies) designed to make

instruction comprehensible and grade-level academic content accessible
for English learners (ELs).

Four Critical Elements

Teachers need to:

1. Content
ƒ Determine key concepts and skills
ƒ Design lesson objectives that focus on specific concepts and specific language
ƒ Use district/state adopted grade-level curriculum
ƒ Choose ancillary text and other materials that will help clarify the content

2. Connections
ƒ Build connections between what is to be learned and what students already know
Take into consideration:
‐ Previous content learning
‐ Processes and skills learned (e.g., Think-Pair-Share, outlines)
‐ Personal experiences (e.g., selecting culturally responsive examples from the
student’s life to illustrate a key concept)
ƒ Organize lessons that build on previous knowledge

3. Comprehensibility
ƒ Combine visual clues such as pictures, diagrams with verbal and written
communication
ƒ Make a one to one correspondence between spoken and written concept and the
visual clue
ƒ Control range and diversity of vocabulary (e.g., idiomatic expressions)
ƒ Repeat new key words in different contexts and chart them
ƒ Check frequently for comprehension

4. Interaction
ƒ Use a variety of grouping
ƒ Use modeling and sentence frames to scaffold academic language development
ƒ Make sure students use targeted academic language
ƒ Ask many and varied questions

SDAIE Definition 10-09.doc

The Critical Elements of SDAIE
Observation

Content Connections

Comprehensibility Interaction