Teaching Content to English Language Learners

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Teaching Content to English Language Learners

• MATSOL Conference
• Spring 2006
• Nancy A. Carnevale M.Ed

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Sheltered Instruction

• What is it?
• Sheltered instruction is a means for making
  grade-level academic content more accessible for
  English language learners while promoting their
  English language development.
• Practice of highlighting language features and
  functions that make the content comprehensible to
  the students

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• High Quality Sheltered Instruction is cognitively
  demanding and context embedded providing students
  with the appropriate scaffolding to give them the
  comprehensible input they need to access
  grade-level content.

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How do I do it?

• Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)
  Components
• Preparation
• Building Background
• Comprehensible Input
• Strategies
• Interaction
• Practice/Application
• Lesson Delivery
• Review/Assessment

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Preparation

• Clearly defined content objectives
• Clearly defined language objectives
• Content concepts appropriate for age and
  educational background
• Supplementary materials used to a high degree
  making the lesson clear and meaningful
• Adaptation of content to all levels of
  proficiency
• Meaningful activities that integrate lesson
  concepts

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Preparing Language Objectives for SIOP Lessons

• Determine key technical vocabulary, concept words
  and other words needed to read or write about the
  topic of the lesson
• Consider the language functions students will use
  in the lesson and teach/reinforce the functions
  within lesson activities.

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• Decide which language skills are needed to
  accomplish the lessons activities.
• Identify grammar or language structure
  connections.
• Consider the tasks students need to complete and
  determine what language might be embedded in the
  assignments that could be pulled out and turned
  into explicit instruction in language.
• Explore possible language learning strategies to
  share in the lesson.

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Building Background
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• Concepts explicitly linked to students
  background experiences
• Links explicitly made between past learning and
  new concepts
• Key vocabulary emphasized (e.g., introduced,
  written, repeated, and highlighted for students
  to see)

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WAYS TO TIE PRIOR LEARNING INTO THE CLASSROOM

• Questioning Ask a simple question, Who
  remembers what we did yesterday? and solicit
  responses.
• Charts Make a chart of key information being
  studied and keep the chart as a reference. Call
  students attention to it as needed.
• Student journals Have students write down what
  they have learned in a journal or notebook.
• Lesson Connections Make explicit statements to
  connect what the students are going to study with
  what they have studied. Help students see a
  continuum of the content concepts and build a
  bigger picture in their minds.

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Emphasizing Key Vocabulary

• Contextualizing Vocabulary
• Vocabulary Self-Selection
• Personal Dictionaries
• Word Wall
• Concept Definition Maps
• Word Sorts
• Word Generation
• Word Study books

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Comprehensible Input
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Comprehensible Input

• Speech appropriate for students proficiency
  level (e.g., slower rate, careful enunciation,
  and simple sentence structure for beginners)
• Clear explanation of academic tasks
• A variety of techniques used to make content
  concepts clear (e.g., modeling, visuals, hands-on
  activities, demonstrations, gestures, body
  language)

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Guidelines to Achieve Comprehensible Input

• Teacher Speech and Behavior
• Use expression and body language.
• Speak slowly and clearly.
• Use more pauses between phrases.
• Use shorter sentences with simpler phrases.
• Stress high frequency vocabulary.
• Repeat and review vocabulary.
• Watch carefully for comprehension and be ready to
  repeat or restate to clarify meaning whenever
  necessary.
• Be friendly and enthusiastic.
• Maintain a warm, supportive affect.
• Open discussion to different perspectives of a
  topic.

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Instructional Strategies

• Use visuals.
• Use graphic organizers.
• Communicate about the subject area in oral,
  written, physical or pictorial.
• Tap the students as resources for information
  about the topic.
• Provide hands-on and performance-based
  activities.
• Promote critical thinking and study skill
  development.
• Incorporate cooperative learning activities.
• Be process-oriented and provide modeling
• Adjust instruction for the different learning
  styles of the students.

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• Handout Comprehensible Input Strategies and
  Techniques for Integrating Language and Content
  Instruction

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Strategies
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Strategies

• Ample opportunities for student to use strategies
• Consistent use of scaffolding techniques
  throughout lesson, assisting and supporting
  student understanding
• A variety of question types used, including those
  that promote higher-order thinking skills
  throughout the lesson (e.g., literal, analytic,
  and interpretive questions)

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Expository Texts and Graphic Organizers

• Description - text describes or defines
  information
• Organizers- webs, features charts, comparison
  charts
• Enumeration text lists information about
  several related items, (e.g., events, characters,
  objects) and provides supporting evidence or
  details
• Organizers- tree diagrams, branch diagrams, webs,
  outlines
• Comparison-contrast
• Organizers-Venn diagrams, comparison charts

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• Chronological or sequential text organized in a
  time sequence and uses temporal markers, such as
  dates, prepositional phrases of time, sequence
  words (e.g., first, next, then)
• Organizers timelines and story summaries
• Cause-effect text describes cause-effect
  reactions, how one thing occurs as the result of
  another and uses causative words (e.g., so, as a
  result, therefore)
• Organizers- flow charts, sequence chains, cycles
• Problem-solution text presents a problem and
  one or more solutions, word choice relates to
  options, alternatives, consequences and results
• Organizers decision-making diagrams, semantic
  maps

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Interaction
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Interaction

• Frequent opportunities for interactions and/ or
  discussion between teacher/student and among
  students that encourage elaborated responses
  about lesson concepts
• Grouping configurations support language and
  content objectives of the lessons
• Sufficient wait time for student response
• Ample opportunities for students to clarify key
  concepts in L1 as needed with aide, peer or L1

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Practice/Application
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Practice/Application

• Hands-on materials and/or manipulatives for
  students to practice using new content knowledge
• Activities for students to apply content and
  language knowledge in the classroom
• Activities that integrate all language skills
  (reading, writing, listening and speaking)

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Lesson Delivery
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Lesson Delivery

• Content objectives clearly supported by lesson
  delivery
• Language objectives clearly supported by lesson
  delivery
• Students engaged approximately 90-100 of the
  period
• Pacing of the lesson appropriate to the students
  ability level

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• When teachers spend their time and energy
  teaching students the content they need to learn,
  the students learn the material.
• When students spend their time actively engaged
  in activities that relate strongly to the
  materials they will be tested on, they learn MORE
  of the material.

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Review/Assessment
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Review/Assessment

• Comprehensive review of key vocabulary
• Comprehensive review of key content concepts
• Regular feedback to students on their output
• Assessment of student comprehension and learning
  of all lesson objectives

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Resources

• Using the SIOP Model Professional Development
  Manual for Sheltered Instruction SIOP-9736-8OP2 
• Publisher(s)Center for Applied Linguistics
• Author(s)Deborah J. Short, Justine Hudec,
  Jana Echevarria Year  2002