Learn the basics of the SIOP Model and how to apply SIOP Practice and Application.
Get practical tips and techniques to increase student success!
Table of Contents
As an educator with 20-plus years of experience working with adult, teen, and ESL learners, I am committed to using the SIOP Model when developing lesson plans.
This model combines evidence-based strategies to create meaningful learning opportunities for students.
I have a wide breadth of knowledge, including a Master’s in Education, a Master’s in Arts, and a TEFL certification.
This academic background helps me create effective instructional strategies tailored to ELL learners’ needs.
SIOP Model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model (CREDE, 1996) is a research-based framework for instruction effective for student success with second language learners.
SIOP Model as a best practice provides teachers with guidance on how to plan and deliver high-level and effective content-based lessons.
The SIOP Model includes eight components:
This model is validated as an effective means of enhancing student learning, particularly for teachers who use SIOP practice and application.
SIOP Practice and Application of the SIOP Model is where students practice and apply the content and language of the lesson.
Teachers use a variety of teaching strategies to encourage students to communicate with each other and engage in the lesson content.
Students review and internalize the learned material during lessons and learning. Then, they apply what they’ve learned in various contexts within the learning environment.
Integrating real-world examples in each lesson is critical in a language acquisition framework as it helps build an environment that makes the language learner feel more confident and successful by drawing on previous knowledge to apply in new situations.
Repeated exposure to the target language and relevant vocabulary, along with thoughtful and relevant feedback, creates a learning experience that can help increase the retention of the learned material.
The teacher puts time limits on the students’ responses, while their goal is to encourage them to speak, read, write, and listen in each activity.
Class time distributions for language skills, the foundational skills, and content taught in the classroom depend on your school.
In reality, many language classes are conducted longer or shorter than any planned 40, 55, or 70-minute periods.
Teachers need to adjust accordingly for each lesson.
Teachers often divide their time as they stop to help individual students with new language or content.
Sometimes, student work is collected, and the teacher will give feedback during collection.
Teachers need to realize they have time to collect and not evaluate each piece of work at this time.
However, providing students opportunities to share their learning with classmates for feedback is more efficient and impactful.
This is a helpful teaching strategy to include in lesson planning. Students must practice and apply what they have learned to transfer their learning. Use activity time to accomplish this goal.
This helps to balance the time for what the teacher does and what the students do to complete each lesson.
Hands-on activities encourage students to use meaningful and memorable ways to apply their newly gained knowledge and skills.
Integration of the four language domains: reading, writing, speaking, and listening is encouraged in this stage. In addition, students will practice the target language by translating their mother-tongue language.
Here are three activity examples for SIOP practice and application:
Students’ ability to think critically about a topic helps to set them up for all subject areas and life.
Teachers can teach critical thinking strategies during lessons.
Here are three examples of how The SIOP Model helps with teaching students creative thinking:
I teach writing to English language learners in grades 10, 11, and 12.
While teaching what my students call their ‘least favorite English subject,’ I have found if you can’t get a class excited about writing, don’t ask them to write.
Ask them to learn about writing, or better yet, ask them to learn how to learn about writing.
They will get excited about the challenge, and in the process, they will become critical thinkers and readers.
To achieve this, I pick interesting texts with creative writing stories from peers their age in a high school in Canada, poetry (Chinese and English), and popular songs.
We view each text through a lens designed to encourage critical thinking about grammar, sentence structure, identifying context, and metaphors.
Then, I ask my students to write. It works.
Here are some outcomes of critical thinking I have found with using my methods to encourage using all four domains of English, including writing:
Predictors of success include a series of questions, assessments, and learning outcomes in each lesson.
At the end of each lesson, it is important to include a specific formative assessment to measure students’ success with the lesson’s learning outcomes.
Another type of formative assessment is an exit ticket. An exit ticket assesses the student’s understanding of a lesson.
There are various creative ways to use formative assessment for your lessons to assess all four language domains.
These are three examples:
Integrating the four language domains ‘allows students to use strengths to develop new ones, gives everyone a chance to shine at something, and recycles the content and language by using different skills leads to ownership’ (TESOL, 2021).
In a lesson topic, “What are the Olympics?”, students learn about the history of the Olympics.
Using a listening guide activity, students will:
Using all four language domains with activities to encourage collaboration addresses SIOP practice and application.
The SIOP Model stresses the importance of consistency in the language presented to students. Using consistent words, expressions, and grammatical structures provides consistency for students.
This strategy helps students develop the art of understanding and applying the target language.
Throughout the process, students are given opportunities to practice and develop their new language.
In terms of learning and practicing, the environment for the students is friendly and encouraging. Ultimately, this is an effective way to enhance their language development.
Providing meaningful and memorable language learning experiences is important in SIOP practice and application.
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Until next time,
