Part B

1) I do not agree with this statement. SIOP not only helps your ELL students, but it also
helps your on- level and native English speaking students. Planning your lessons with
SIOP supports the language objectives in the classroom, which are; reading, writing,
speaking and listening. SIOP lessons include many opportunities for student
engagement as well as interaction between the teacher and peers. Each student, no
matter if they are an ELL student or not, are able to get exactly what they need to learn.
It also ensures that students are using high-order thinking skills and will benefit from
sheltered instruction. Even if teachers have few ELL students, they can still plan SIOP
lessons and differentiate for each students needs. As the teacher scaffolds for the
student, they are able to learn what they need to. As the teacher does less scaffolding,
the student is able to do more on their own. This is done by using scaffolding, i+1, and
ZPD to help students best.
2) Three additional questions that you could ask after asking who the first president of the
United States was are:
1. How was George Washington elected for president?
2. What are the Bill of Rights?
3. Why did George Washington refuse a third term as president?
It is important to use a variety of questioning strategies with English Language Learners
because you want them to use higher order thinking skills to answer questions. Using a
variety of questioning strategies helps English Language Learners learn the skills of
critical thinking. Teachers can use Blooms Taxonomy to see what level their English
Language Learners are on and how to best scaffold for their needs. The first level is
knowledge. This is the level of questioning that is used most when students are just
learning high order thinking skills. The next level is comprehension. This level is when
students are able to understand the concepts they are being taught. The next level is
Application. This happens when an English Language Learner applies their background
knowledge to the concepts. The next level is Analysis. Students are able to analyze the
question and answer it with scaffolding from the teacher. The next level is Synthesis.
Students are able to compile the information to answer a question, but still may need
scaffolding from the teacher. The next level is Evaluation. When the question is asked it
can be simplified so that the student can use their higher order thinking skills to come
up with the answer, but the task stays the same. Throughout all of these levels the
teacher uses scaffolding to help the student understand the question. As the student
advances through the levels, the scaffolding decreases and the student is able to do
more high order thinking on their own.
3) Teacher As lesson contains a lot of teacher talk where students are just listening.
Students are given visuals and a list of appropriate foods. The assessment given is
assessing how well the students memorized the list of foods.
Teacher Bs lesson includes activities to keep students engaged and to learn from what
they are doing. Teacher B uses interaction with peers to engage students and help them
learn from their partners knowledge and experiences. The Practice/Application
component of the SIOP Model states that students learn best when teachers supply lots
of hands-on instruction, and provide activities for students to apply content and
language knowledge. Teacher B is integrating all of the language skills into the lesson,
which will help all of the students learn and understand the concept.
Teacher Bs lesson is more appropriate to teach English Language Learners the content
concept. I know this because all students are able to do hands-on learning and
understand the concept. They are also able to interact with peers, which helps support
language and content objectives, and also helps them to make links to the information
in the lesson. Vygotskys Sociocultural theory states that learning is dependent on face-
to face interaction with the teacher or peers. As the students communicate they are
able to construct knowledge and learn from each other. Students are also able to use
their own background knowledge of the foods they eat to help with the activity and to
compare the foods they eat now and decide which foods they should avoid.
4. A teacher determines if her students are engaged throughout the majority of the
lesson as she assesses their ideas, how well they are interacting and working
together, and how they are answering questions. Techniques that could be used to
help students be more engaged is interaction, which is from the SIOP Model. If
teachers provide opportunities for students to interact and discuss they will be more
engaged in the lesson. Grouping plays a big role in interaction and teachers can
group in many ways, including pairs, groups, and interest groups. It is also important
for the teacher to give students sufficient wait time so they are able to think about
their answer before having to answer. If the teacher senses the students are off task,
she should spot check the students to check for sure. If they are off task, she should
change her strategy. Sustained engagement is important for English Language
Learners because the student is able to practice important content and language
skills, use their own background knowledge and those of their peers to learn, and it
also gives them time to clarify and link concepts.
5. The content concept I will be teaching is reading with punctuation. Three different
grouping configurations I would use would be; whole group, shoulder partner, and
small group. The first group would be whole group. We would meet on the rug and
practice reading with punctuation. The next group would be shoulder partners. Each
shoulder partner would take turns reading a paragraph with punctuation. The next
group would be a small group of three or four students. Each person in the group
would choose a character in a play. The group would practice their parts while
reading with punctuation. I would listen as students read with punctuation, and spot
check the shoulder partners, and small groups. English Language Learners would
have a model to show them how to read with punctuation, they would also be able
to practice reading with punctuation, and they would have the opportunity to work
with different students.