SIOP

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) was developed to make content material more comprehensible to English Language Learners. The model was developed by Jana Echevarria, Mary Ellen Vogt and Deborah J. Short. After reading about SIOP, I believe the authors did an incredible job of helping me understand the importance of educating English Language Learners in a way that is simple but not “watered down.” America is becoming increasingly more bilingual and I agree—as educators—we need to know how to teach ELL students in such a way where they actually understand what they are being asked.

I’m bilingual and I remember the frustrations—growing up—I had learning English. I remember having to read the word island. I could not understand why we pronounced it with a silent s. When I would read the word island, I would pronounce it as izland. I also like how SIOP mentioned, “Concepts must be directly related to the students’ background experiences, when possible, whether personal, cultural, or academic.” I believe this is key to helping ELL students; they need to feel connected to the language, so to speak. I remember reading an article which mentioned, we learn best when we can connect something new with something we already know. Thus, when we are teaching—for example—Russian ELL students, we need to take into account their culture, experiences, etc. Also, if we are teaching Spanish ELL, students we need to do the same, every ELL student will be different and so we need to make that cultural connection, if we are to be successful ELL teachers. Therefore, SIOP is an incredibly important tool which educators of ELL students need to take into account. The ideas and practical information offered are—most definitely—something every ELL teacher should consider with his or her students.