Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)

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The Components of ELL Instruction

1. Lesson Preparation

  • Clearly define content objectives
  • Clearly define language objectives
  • Select content concepts that are appropriate to learners’ age and educational background
  • Use a variety of supplementary materials to make the lesson clear and meaningful (computer programs, graphs, models, visuals)
  • Adapt the content to all proficiency levels
  • Use authentic and meaningful activities and integrate them into lesson concepts

2. Building Background

  • Explicitly link concepts to students’ background experiences
  • Explicitly link past learning to new content
  • Emphasize key vocabulary

3. Comprehensible Input

  • Use speech that is appropriate for students’ proficiency level
  • Clearly explain academic tasks 
  • Use a variety of techniques to make content clear (model, use visuals, demonstrations and hands-on activities)

4. Learning Strategies

  • Provide ample opportunities for students to use strategies
  • Consistently use scaffolding techniques throughout the lesson 
  • Include a variety of question types that promote higher-order thinking skills

5. Interaction

  • Provide students with frequent opportunities for interaction and discussion between teacher and student and among students and encourage extended student discourse about the lesson concepts
  • Carefully configure the grouping of students to support language and content of the lesson
  • Consistently provide sufficient wait time for student responses
  • Provide ample opportunities for students to clarify key concepts in their native language

6. Practice and Application

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

7. Lesson Delivery

  • Clearly support the content objectives in lesson delivery
  • Clearly support the language objectives in lesson delivery
  • Engage students 90 percent to 100 percent of the time
  • Pace the lesson appropriately to students’ ability level

8. Review and Assessment

  • Include a comprehensive review of key vocabulary
  • Include a comprehensive review of key content concepts
  • Provide regular feedback to students on their output
  • Conduct assessments of student comprehension and learning of all lesson objectives throughout the lesson

SOURCE www.cal.org/siop