Thanks for your great reflections! I enjoyed reading your posts on the blog. We are now starting Chapter 4, Almost halfway finished with the text. I have enjoyed being part of the process of the Professional Learning Communities, as all of you share your insights on the information about SIOP and discuss the relevance to your teaching practice.
Chapter 4: Comprehensible Input
Let's start with a little review. Many English Language Learners do not understand much of the academic English used in our schools. The learner must understand the message that is presented in class. Comprehensible input is a hypothesis first proposed by Stephen Krashen in 1981. He says that ELLs acquire language by hearing and understanding messages that are slightly above their current English language level. This is known as Comprehensible Input +1.
The 3 features of this component are:
10) Speech appropriate for students’ proficiency levels (e.g., slower rate, enunciation, and simple sentence structure for beginners)
11) Clear explanation of academic tasks
12) A variety of techniques used to make content concepts clear (e.g., modeling, visuals, hands-on activities, demonstrations, gestures, body language)
Prior to Reading• Which feature do you think about the most when you are preparing your lesson plans?
• Which feature would you like to improve on?
• How much of your speech in class do you think students understand?
• What techniques do you already use to make content concepts clear to your students?
After Reading
Read about feature 10 on page 80-81.
Observe your class and think about their proficiency levels.
• At which proficiency level would you describe your students as: Beginning, Early Intermediate, Intermediate, Advanced or Transitional?
• How do you explain or clarify this concept and/or vocabulary for students?
Feature 11: Clear Explanation of Academic tasks. On page 81, the text says, “Oral directions should always be accompanied by written ones, so ELs can refer back to them at a later point in time as they complete the assignment or task.” Do you think that this would be good to do in your class? Would it help your students follow directions?
• What types of grouping and interaction strategies do you use to help students explain academic tasks? Checking individual students, small groups? Any others?
Features 11 and 12.
Identify a concept you will teach soon and think of one content objective and one language objective for the lesson.
How you would adjust your explanation to ELs to students who are at various proficiency levels?
• Beginning
• Early Intermediate
• Intermediate
• Advanced
On pages 82-84, there are 10 activities that you can use to make content clear.
• What techniques can you use to make new concepts clear?
• What techniques do you already use that are not listed in the book?
Teaching scenarios on pages 85 through 88
• How do teachers make content accessible to all students? Notice the strengths of the activities that Mr. Lew used to help his students gain access to the curriculum (p. 86-87).
• How do these activities provide ELLs with access to the content material?
