Review of SIOP Principles

1. SIOP Model Review
Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

2. • Are your content and language learning objectives written on
the board? Did you state them orally to the students?
• Is the content appropriate for these students’ educational
and linguistic background?
• Do you have supplementary materials ready to help make
lessons clear and meaningful?
• Do you have ways to adapt content to all levels of student
proficiency?
– graphic organizers, study guides, taped texts, jigsaw reading…
• Are your activities meaningful and authentic?
• Do your activities integrate lesson concepts with language
practice opportunities?
– surveys, letter writing, making models, plays, games…
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

3. • Did you link explicit
concepts to students’
background
experience?
• Did you make clear
links between
students’ past learning
and new concepts?
• Did you emphasize key
vocabulary?
• Major Instructional
Interventions
– Pre-teach vocabulary
– Provide experiences
(ex: showing video
before lesson)
– Introduce conceptual
framework (ex:
graphic organizers
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

4. • Did you speak appropriately to accommodate students’
proficiency level?
• Did you explain academic tasks clearly?
• Did you use a variety of techniques to make content
concepts clear?
– modeling, hands-on materials, visuals, demos, gestures,
film clips…
• Did you speak slowly and enunciate clearly?
• Did you avoid jargon?
• Did you paraphrase and use repetition?
• Did you keep your sentence structure simple?
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

5. • Did you provide ample opportunities for students to
use strategies?
– GIST, SQP2R, Reciprocal Teaching, mnemonics, 12 minute
research paper, 2 column notes, repeated readings, …
• Did you use scaffolding techniques throughout
lesson
– think-alouds, paraphrasing, partnering…
• Did you employ a variety of question types in
discussion?
– use Question Cube, Thinking Cube, Bloom’s Taxonomy…
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

6. • Did you provide frequent opportunities for interaction and
discussion?
• Did you give opportunities for “oral rehearsal?”
• Can you group students to support language and content
objectives?
– use at least 2 different structures during a lesson—pairs, triads, teams,
varied by language proficiency or interest
• Do you consistently allow for sufficient wait time?
– let other students write down answers while waiting for one student to
respond
• Did you give ample opportunities for clarification for concepts in
L1? - use bilingual paraprofessionals, native language materials, notes by
students…
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

7. • Did you supply lots of hands-on materials?
• Did you provide activities for students to apply
content/language knowledge?
– discussing and doing make abstract concepts
concrete
– allow students to work in partners before
working alone
• Did you integrate all language skills into each
lesson?
– listening, speaking, reading, writing
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

8. • Did your lesson clearly support content objectives?
– objectives apparent throughout lesson
– no “bird-walks”
• Did you clearly support language objectives?
– students given ample opportunities to “show off” their language
capabilities in speaking, reading, writing
• Did you engage students 90-100% of the lesson?
– less “teacher talk”
– no “down-time”
– students are actively working in whole groups, small groups,
individually…
• Did you pace the lesson appropriately to students’ ability
level?
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

9. • Did you provide comprehensive review of key vocabulary?
– teach, review, assess, teach…
– use word study books
– Content Word Wall
• Did you provide a comprehensive review of key content
concepts?
– review content directly related to objectives throughout lesson
– use graphic organizers as review
• Did you give regular feedback to students on their output?
– clarify, discuss, correct responses
• Did you conduct assessment of student comprehension and
learning?
– use a variety of quick reviews: thumbs up-down, numbered wheels,
small dry erase boards; include student self-assessment…
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

11. • Base lessons on grade-level
appropriate curriculum
• Share content and
language objectives with EL
students
– take from Grade-Level
Content Expectations
• Start with “jump-start”
mini lessons that develop
context and access to
background knowledge
• Plan meaningful, real-life
activities
– Plan activities to promote
language
– Relate authentic activities
to students’ lives
– Apply to grade level
content standards
– Involve students in
reading, writing,
discussion of important
concepts and ideas
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

12. • Graphic Organizers
• Outlines
• Leveled Study Guides
• Highlighted Text
• Taped Text
• Adapted Text
• Jigsaw Text Reading
• Marginal Notes
• Native Language Texts
• Hands-on manipulatives
and realia
• Pictures, photos, visuals
• Multimedia: film clips,
songs and chants, posters,
computer games
• Demonstrations: step by
step modeling
• Leveled fiction and
nonfiction books
• Websites
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

13. • Students should:
– be active in developing
understanding
– personalize word
learning
– be immersed in words
– build on multiple
sources of information
– repeat exposures to
words (Recommended
25 times for word
ownership)
• Contextualize key vocabulary
• Allow students to self-select
essential vocabulary
• Personal Dictionaries
• Content Word Wall
• Concept Definition Map
• Cloze Sentences
• Word Sorts
• Word Generation
• Word Study Books
• Vocabulary Games
• Visual Vocabulary
• Vocabulary through Songs

14. Student-Centered
Rehearsal:
Repeated
Selective Underlining
Two-column notes
Mental Imagery:
Guided Imagery
Peer-Assisted Creating Analogies
Role Playing Organizational:
Peer Tutoring Graphic Organizers
Teacher-Assisted Reciprocal Teaching Outlining
Drill and practice Cooperative Learning 
Discovery
Learning

Teacher-Centered Brainstorming 
Lecture Discussion 
Direct Instruction 
Demonstration 
Recitation 
Moving Students to
Independence
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

15. • Step by Step
– Present instructions in a step-
by-step manner and/or with
demonstrations.
– Write oral directions on board
– Ask students to re-explain
– Use peer-modeling
– Focus attention on one group
that is functioning well on
activity.
– Let those students explain
step-by-step instructions to
whole class using an overhead
transparency
• Scaffolding Techniques
– Verbal scaffolding: paraphrasing
– Think-Alouds
– Reinforcing contextual definitions
– Model
– Use gestures
– Employ hands-on activities
– Demonstrate techniques and
experiments
– Discussion
– Sentence strips
– Reporting out orally
– Multimedia, PowerPoint,
Websites, and other Technologies
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

16. • Questioning Techniques
– Cube Rolls
• Thinking Cube with 6 higher order questions from Bloom’s
Taxonomy
• Question Cube - Who, What, When, Where, Why, How
– QAR (Question-Answer Relationships)
• Distinguish between “Right here” (literal) questions, “Author and
Me” (inferential), and “On My Own” (from experience) questions
– QtA (Questioning the Author)
• Develop a deep comprehension of the reading material.
• Mnemonics—using acronyms to memorize terms or concepts, ex:
HOMES –each letter stands for one of the Great Lakes
• “I Wonder” Brainstorming about book, topic, theme—should be in the
form of questions (who, what, when, what if, why…) or “I wonder if…”
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

17. • GIST summarizing strategy:
– After reading a passage or
section of text, teacher and
students underline or pick
out 10 words and concepts
that are “most important” to
understanding text.
• Illustrate new learning on a
poster including appropriate
captions and details.
• Create a poem, chant, song, or
play demonstrating new
learning.
• Graffiti Write
• Word Splash
Procedural Scaffolding
Increasing Independence
Whole
Class
Small
Group
Partners Independent
Work
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

18. • Encouraging more elaborate responses:
– going beyond “yes” and “no” answers—
– “Tell me more about that”
– “What do you mean by…?”
– “What else…”
– “How do you know?”
– “Why is that important?”
– “What does that remind you of?” or teacher restates student’s answer—
– “In other words…. Is that accurate?”
– or teacher allows wait time for student to formulate answer
– or teacher calls on another student to extend classmate’s response
• Fostering student-student interaction:
– Putting students in pairs, triads or small groups
– Types of activities that encourage “table talk”:
– Literature circles, think-pair-share, jigsaw readings debates, science or math experiments
• Other ways: dialogue journals, e-mail, pen pals, research files
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

19. • Recommendation – at least 2
different groupings in every
lesson
• Whole class
– To develop classroom
community and provide a
shared experience for everyone
• Flexible small groups
– To promote multiple
perspectives and encourage
collaboration
• Partnering
– To provide practice
opportunities, scaffold
instruction, give assistance
before independent practice
• Homogenous or Heterogeneous
grouping
– By gender, language proficiency,
language background, and/or
ability
– Variety maintains students’
interest
– Movement from whole class, to
partners, to small group increases
student involvement
– Varying group structures
increases the preferred mode of
instruction for students
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

20. • Wait time varies by culture:
– The average length of wait
time in US classrooms is
clearly not sufficient—give
students at least 20 seconds
wait time
• Effective teachers allow students
to express their thoughts fully
without interruption
• Helpful Tips:
– Allow students to practice their
answer with a partner before
calling on them to speak out
before the whole class.
– Have more advanced students
write down their responses while
waiting, and then check their
answers against the final answer.
– If students cannot answer right
away let them answer from a list
of choices or “phone” (ask) a
friend for help.
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

21. • Information gap activities
– Each student in a group has only one or two
pieces of information needed to solve the
puzzle or problem.
– Students must work together, sharing
information while practicing their language,
and using critical thinking skills.
• Jigsaw
– Jigsaw reading task by chunking text into
manageable parts (1-2 pages).
– Number students in each group (1-4 or 5).
– All #1s read the first 2 pages, #2s read the
second 2 pages, etc.
– These expert groups then discuss their
reading and share ideas.
– The original groups reconvene, discuss the
whole text and share their expertise.
– Students pool their information.
• Numbered heads together
– Similar to Jigsaw without forming
expert groups.
– Each student works on one portion
of assignment and then students
share.
• Four corners (Carousel)
– Great activity to introduce a topic or
chapter of study.
– Write one question or idea on each
chart paper.
– Divide class into 4 groups, each
group has a different color marker—
students move to one corner chart
paper and designated student begins
writing their ideas on chart.
– Time activity 2-4 minutes.
– Students move clockwise to next
corner, read responses and add their
comments.
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

22. • Roundtable
– Use with open-ended questions, grammar
practice.
– 4-5 students are grouped at tables, one
sheet of paper, and one pencil.
– Question or grammar point is given by
teacher, students pass paper around table,
each writing their own response.
– Teacher circulates room.
• 3 Step Interview
– Students are paired.
– Each student listens to the other as they
respond to a topic question.
– At the end of 3 minutes, each pair joins
another pair of students and shares what
their partners said.
– Good way to practice language.
• Writing Headlines
– Good way to practice summarizing
an activity, story or project.
– Provide models of Headlines.
– Students work in pairs writing a
headline for an activity.
– Pairs share out their headlines and
class votes on most effective
headline.
• Send a Problem
– One table team sends a question or
problem to another table.
– Each table team solves or answers
question and passes it back to
original table.
– Good way to review for a test.
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

23. • Give students multiple opportunities to practice.
• Practice in relevant, meaningful ways
• Provide “hands-on “ experiences
• Planning for hands-on practice:
– Divide content into meaningful short chunks—chunk by meaning, not
just length
– Time for practice should be short—10-15 minutes
– New learning should have several short practices close together
– Older learning should be practices distributed further apart—review
material periodically
– Give students immediate feedback on how well they have done
• Connect abstract concepts with concrete experiences:
– Material can be organized, created (chart learning), counted, classified
(concept mapping), stacked (index card review), rearranged, dismantled
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

24. • Paraphrasing
– oral rehearsal of what student is going to say
with group before saying it to the whole class
or saying the definition of a word right after
the word
• Systematic study
– isolated word lists and dictionary definitions
alone do not promote vocabulary and
language development.
– Words should be studied through multiple
modalities—see them, say them, write them
many times in different ways, act them out,
sing them, draw them, and find them in
context
• Non-print Ways to Review
– use “acting out words”, Pictionary, Charades
• Word Study Books
– student-made personal notebook in
which the student includes
frequently used words and
concepts.
– Book can be organized by language
structure: -tion, -sion, -tation
and/or alphabetical, and/or by
topic of study (ex: Revolution
words)
• “School Talk” sessions
– Teach discussion circle protocol:
taking turns, polite disagreement
words, how to ask and answer
questions.
– Do a practice session with a fun
topic of students’ interest like
movie stars, cars…Teach test-taking
“talk”—how questions are worded
on a test
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

25. • Review Key Concepts
– Outcome Sentences wrap up
technique Students respond to one of
the following sentence starters: I
wonder…, I discovered…, I still want to
know…, I learned…, I still don’t
understand
– Structured review—summarizing with
partners, listing key points on board.
– Always link to content objective
• Informal Assessment:
– On-the-spot, ongoing
opportunities to determine the
extent of students’ learning.
– Includes teacher observations,
anecdotal reports, informal
conversations with students,
quick-writes.
Group response activities
• Agree/Disagree, True/False, Yes/No
– index cards that students or groups of
students could use to quickly give their
answers to questions.
• Thumbs up/thumbs down
– For “I don’t know” students can make a
fist.
• Numbered wheels
– Tag board strips (5” x 1”). Each strip is
numbered 0-5 or 0-10. This allows
students to answer multiple-choice
questions quickly by holding up
appropriate number. O is a “Don’t
know” response.
• Response boards:
– Small chalk or white boards, or even
plastic plates
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

26. • Assessment
– “the gathering and synthesizing of information
concerning students’ learning”
• Evaluation
– “making judgments about students’ learning”.
Assessment comes first, then evaluation
• Gather base-line data before instruction occurs
helps teachers know students’ growth over time
• Plan multiple assessments in order to truly assess
students’ content and language learning
Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners.

27. • Echevarria, Vogt, & Short. (2004). Making
Content Comprehensible for English Language
Learners. Pearson.
• SIOP at Center for Applied Linguistics -
http://www.cal.org/siop/
• The SIOP Institute - http://www.siopinstitute.net/
• PDF File: http://www.misd.net/bilingual/ELL.pdf
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