How to Use the SIOP Model for Practice and Application

Estimated reading time: 0 minutes

Learn the basics of the SIOP Model and how to apply SIOP Practice and Application.

Get practical tips and techniques to increase student success!

Background

As an educator with 20-plus years of experience working with adult, teen, and ESL learners, I am committed to using the SIOP Model when developing lesson plans.

This model combines evidence-based strategies to create meaningful learning opportunities for students.

I have a wide breadth of knowledge, including a Master’s in Education, a Master’s in Arts, and a TEFL certification.

This academic background helps me create effective instructional strategies tailored to ELL learners’ needs.

The SIOP Model

SIOP Model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) Model (CREDE, 1996) is a research-based framework for instruction effective for student success with second language learners.

• It is used for unit planning and lesson planning to provide students with the skills they need for academic success.
• The model also intends to help students strengthen their academic language and literacy skills.

SIOP Model as a best practice provides teachers with guidance on how to plan and deliver high-level and effective content-based lessons.

• Lessons promote higher-level learning experiences with language development.
• Students develop their skills in the new language by engaging both the mother tongue and the target language during each lesson.

8 SIOP Model Components

The SIOP Model includes eight components:

1. Lesson Preparation
2. Building Background
3. Comprehensible Input
4. Strategies
5. Interaction
6. Practice & Application
7. Lesson Delivery
8. Review & Assessment

This model is validated as an effective means of enhancing student learning, particularly for teachers who use SIOP practice and application.

Tips for SIOP Practice and Application

SIOP Practice and Application of the SIOP Model is where students practice and apply the content and language of the lesson.

• Teachers provide directions for how students complete the lesson activities.
• Students complete the lesson activities to meet the learning outcomes.
• Students practice new knowledge and skills during a communicative activity or game at this stage.
• Students complete tasks and find solutions by talking to each other.

Teachers use a variety of teaching strategies to encourage students to communicate with each other and engage in the lesson content.

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Students review and internalize the learned material during lessons and learning. Then, they apply what they’ve learned in various contexts within the learning environment.

Integrating real-world examples in each lesson is critical in a language acquisition framework as it helps build an environment that makes the language learner feel more confident and successful by drawing on previous knowledge to apply in new situations.

Repeated exposure to the target language and relevant vocabulary, along with thoughtful and relevant feedback, creates a learning experience that can help increase the retention of the learned material.

Managing Time for Learning Experience

The teacher puts time limits on the students’ responses, while their goal is to encourage them to speak, read, write, and listen in each activity.

• This allows students to revise and consolidate their learning through communicative activities.
• Formative assessments at the end of each lesson provide valuable feedback about the students’ comprehension during each lesson.

Class time distributions for language skills, the foundational skills, and content taught in the classroom depend on your school.

In reality, many language classes are conducted longer or shorter than any planned 40, 55, or 70-minute periods.

Teachers need to adjust accordingly for each lesson.

Tip for Managing Time

Teachers often divide their time as they stop to help individual students with new language or content.

Sometimes, student work is collected, and the teacher will give feedback during collection.

Teachers need to realize they have time to collect and not evaluate each piece of work at this time.

However, providing students opportunities to share their learning with classmates for feedback is more efficient and impactful.

This is a helpful teaching strategy to include in lesson planning. Students must practice and apply what they have learned to transfer their learning. Use activity time to accomplish this goal.

This helps to balance the time for what the teacher does and what the students do to complete each lesson.

Creative Activities

Hands-on activities encourage students to use meaningful and memorable ways to apply their newly gained knowledge and skills.

Integration of the four language domains: reading, writing, speaking, and listening is encouraged in this stage. In addition, students will practice the target language by translating their mother-tongue language.

Here are three activity examples for SIOP practice and application:

• Create a situation where students must interview someone, write the results, and present them orally to the class. 
• Use information gaps that often require completing all four skills successfully.
• When lecturing, give students a listening task and have them write down and share it with their peers in writing and orally.

Critical Thinking

Students’ ability to think critically about a topic helps to set them up for all subject areas and life.

Teachers can teach critical thinking strategies during lessons.

Here are three examples of how The SIOP Model helps with teaching students creative thinking:

• Students become more aware of the need to use information when asked to share information while sitting quietly or working in groups.
• Students reinforce their ability to use all four language skills by practicing them during class discussions.
• Demonstrate how information is a prerequisite for understanding bilingual texts.

Encouraging Critical Thinking in Lessons

I teach writing to English language learners in grades 10, 11, and 12.

While teaching what my students call their ‘least favorite English subject,’ I have found if you can’t get a class excited about writing, don’t ask them to write.

Ask them to learn about writing, or better yet, ask them to learn how to learn about writing.

They will get excited about the challenge, and in the process, they will become critical thinkers and readers.

To achieve this, I pick interesting texts with creative writing stories from peers their age in a high school in Canada, poetry (Chinese and English), and popular songs.

We view each text through a lens designed to encourage critical thinking about grammar, sentence structure, identifying context, and metaphors.

Then, I ask my students to write. It works.

Here are some outcomes of critical thinking I have found with using my methods to encourage using all four domains of English, including writing:

• Identify the four language skills and show how they relate to reading and listening.
• Help students understand how listening skills are closely related to the other language domain skills.
• Help students develop skills in using language effectively in various situations, including those that are not classroom-based.
• Expect students to use the four language skills in various situations, including those that are not classroom-based.

Formative Assessments

Predictors of success include a series of questions, assessments, and learning outcomes in each lesson.

At the end of each lesson, it is important to include a specific formative assessment to measure students’ success with the lesson’s learning outcomes.

Common Formative Assessments

• True/false
• Matching
• Multiple Choice
• Short Answer

Exit Slips (Tickets)

Another type of formative assessment is an exit ticket. An exit ticket assesses the student’s understanding of a lesson.

• These assessments are designed to allow students to demonstrate what they know and what they don’t know.
• An exit slip is a quick assessment that helps the teacher decide how to reteach certain concepts.
• Exit slips generally take 2-3 minutes to complete and are provided to students at the end of each lesson.

Creative Formative Assessments

There are various creative ways to use formative assessment for your lessons to assess all four language domains.

These are three examples:

• Presentation Skills: The students will use visual aids, presentations, and other equipment effectively for their delivery.
• Self-Evaluation: The students evaluate their performance and identify areas of improvement.
• Assessment and Evaluation: The students evaluate their peers’ performance and identify areas of strength, which gives teachers insight into the areas for improvement.

SIOP Practice and Application Lesson Example

Integrating the four language domains ‘allows students to use strengths to develop new ones, gives everyone a chance to shine at something, and recycles the content and language by using different skills leads to ownership’ (TESOL, 2021). 

In a lesson topic, “What are the Olympics?”, students learn about the history of the Olympics.

Using a listening guide activity, students will:

• watch a video
• discuss guided questions with their peers
• complete a reading activity
• present their favorite sport to the class

Find the complete sample lesson plan here:

Why Listening Guides are Powerful Tools for Engaging Students

Using all four language domains with activities to encourage collaboration addresses SIOP practice and application.

Summary

The SIOP Model stresses the importance of consistency in the language presented to students. Using consistent words, expressions, and grammatical structures provides consistentcy for students.

This strategy helps students develop the art of understanding and applying the target language.

Throughout the process, students are given opportunities to practice and develop their new language.

In terms of learning and practicing, the environment for the students is friendly and encouraging. Ultimately, this is an effective way to enhance their language development.

Providing meaningful and memorable language learning experiences is important in SIOP practice and application.

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time,

Suzanne

Want more about SIOP Model components? This article has a comprehensive catalog of articles related to using the SIOP Model:

Best Resources for How to Use The SIOP Model

Related Topics

• Best Resources for How to Use The SIOP Model
• 4 Powerful Strategies for Teaching Adults English as a Second Language
• Best Practice To Apply the SIOP Model (Lesson Planning)
• How Language Assessments Empower High School Students
• Easy Lesson for High School Art Curriculum Using Social Studies