Effective Strategies
for Content Teachers of ELLs (using SIOP)
Why SIOP?
Culture Grams
1. Lesson Preparation
1. Write content objectives clearly for students.
2. Write language objectives clearly for students.
3. Chose content concepts appropriate for age and educational background level of students.
4. Identify supplementary materials to use.
5. Adapt content to all levels of student proficiency.
2. Building Background
7. Explicitly link concepts to students' backgrounds and experiences.
8. Explicitly link past learning and new concepts.
9. Emphasize key vocabulary.
3. Comprehensible Input
10. Use speech appropriate for students' proficiency level.
11. Explain academic tasks clearly and in multiple modes.
12. Use a variety of techniques to make content concepts clear.
KWL Charts - Students chart what they KNOW, what they WANT to know, and what they LEARNED
4. Strategies
13. Provide ample opportunities for students to use strategies.
14. Use scaffolding techniques consistently.
15. Use a variety of question types - including those that promote higher-order thinking skills.
Survey, Question, Read, Review Recite - Informational posters display the steps in each stage of SQ3R
5. Interaction
16. Provide frequent opportunities for interaction between teacher/student and among students to discuss content concepts.
17. Use group configurations that support language and content objectives.
18. Provide sufficient wait time for students to respond.
19. Allow for students to clarify key concepts in L1 (native language)
6. Practice/Application
20. Provide hands-on materials or manipulatives for students to practice with new material.
21. Provide activities for students to apply content and language knowledge in the classroom.
22. Provide activities that integrate all language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking)
7. Lesson Delivery
23. Support content objectives clearly.
24. Support language objectives clearly.
25. Engage students 90-100% of the lesson.
26. Pace the lesson appropriately to the students' levels.
8. Review/Evaluation
27. Comprehensive review of key vocabulary.
28. Comprehensive review of key content concepts.
29. Provide feedback to students regularly.
30. Conduct assessments of students' learning and comprehension throughout the lesson.
Simultaneous Roundtable - students help each other review by writing their team number on a paper that is passed from one student to the next. Each student adds a fact about a given concept then passes it on to the next writer. Teams are given a short time frame to complete the task i.e. 2 minutes.