Making Content Comprehensible for English learners: The SIOP Model

by Jana Echevarria

This book is intended to support any teacher with English Language Learners in their classroom to assist in the delivery of all instruction. Provides instructional strategies.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction, Textbooks, School, Professional Development, Language

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Abbi]

took away from real reading time so i’m counting it

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. It had lots of concrete examples, which was a plus, in terms of my ability to stay awake while reading it. I'm not totally sure how much I learned. Reading about this stuff all day is one thing, but actually practicing it would be infinitely more useful, I think.

[Beth Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a textbook that was required for a graduate class (i.e., SEI)--a grad class that I have to take in order to keep my job. So, because I did not choose to read this text, my experience with it might be different than others'.

The book is filled with 30 strategies (or "features") for teachers to use with their English Language Learners. The good news is that they are also solid techniques to use with all students. The three stars, however, stem from the fact that few of what is offered in this text (as part of the SIOP teaching model) are new ones. In fact, just about all of them are ideas most educators would have already gleaned from other professional development texts. They're just repackaged as the SIOP model. Which is like most "new" ideas in teaching.

With that said, if I were a teacher just starting out--or one who hasn't done a whole lot of reading on current best practices, this could be a gold mine. It's just that many teachers taking the SEI grad course are not at the beginning of their careers. For anyone who has taught for even five years, few of the strategies will be new ones.

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was for class but it took away from my real reading time so at the very least it. gets to count towards my reading goal.

[Khari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was an excellent exercise.

I read this book back in 2010-2012 when I was in grad school. When my current university came to me asking me to teach this methodology in their TESOL minor I thought I would be able to do a pretty good job because this is what I had been trained on. I thought that I did a pretty good job of implementing SIOP features into all of my lessons.

Ahem.

Pride goeth before a fall.

This is a good book, and I do indeed implement quite a few SIOP features into my lessons, both the lessons directed at English language learners and the lessons directed at native English learners. But I by no means incorporate as many features as I thought I did, nor do I incorporate them as well as I thought I did. Re-reading this book, and indeed, teaching this book has made that abundantly clear to me.

Several other things have been made abundantly clear through the teaching of this book as well. The most cogent one is that I am absolutely, positively, terrible at teaching content to native English speakers...I don't know if I just suck incredibly, or if it's the 8 week format that sucks so terribly. It's not that my students are not progressing, they are. They just aren't progressing as far as I think they should. When I'm teaching a learner how to speak English, I can see measurable change and measurable growth. I'm having a hard time seeing that from the native students. I don't know, are my measuring mechanisms off? Or is it simply that they do not have enough practice? That it's impossible to actually get enough practice in an 8 week class? It's undeniable that a lot of the content isn't being understood or being applied, but I don't know if it's my teaching ability or if it's the format of the class. I can see why so many teachers have gotten burnt out at this university recently. Constantly being in a state of existential unease like I am right now, wondering if you should rethink all of your life choices and career choices or if it's impossible to succeed in a system that is stacked against you, it's incredibly draining.

I think at least it's partially the 8 week system. It's not designed to result in long-term retention. It's designed to cram as much information as possible into the students with no thought as to how they will actually use it and then releasing them into the wild to sink or swim. It's a terrible system. It's amusing, the 8 week cycle of coverage and then leaving everything to the student to learn on their own actually goes against everything that the SIOP model stands for! Here I am, teaching the students that exposure to concepts a lot, over a long period of time, where you constantly review things you have learned before, is the best way to teach...and I'm not teaching that way!!! Because I can't! We have block scheduling! They only see me once a week, 8 times! And I'm supposed to churn them out being able to design good lesson plans!!!?!?

I'm not doing a good job.

It burns so bad.

[Elie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Page 250: "Teachers and administrators in general education often fail to provide effective instruction in reading and math -- content areas basic to learning in other areas -- and also fail to manage their classroom effectively (Orfield, Losen, & Edley, 2001).

Well that's one of the most offense sentences I've read out of a textbook written FOR TEACHERS.

That aside... I've read this book at least 3 times. The newer edition (this one that I'm reviewing) is much better than the earlier one(s). It has more activities that can be used immediately in the classroom, and I don't even remember the last edition having the RTI chapter.

It's a dry, boring textbook for the most part, but I do think it's a valuable resource for teachers of ELLs, whether or not a teacher has 1 or a class full of them. It's a good place to start if you're good at not being overwhelmed by many details. Heck, you can even ignore the SIOP protocol part and just focus on the big ideas and strategies.

There is a book out there by Vogt (99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Learners with the Siop Model) that just focuses on strategies for teaching ELLs. I would recommend that book for teachers at all familiar with SIOP. Use Making Content Comprehensible as a starting point, gloss over the minutia, and pick up 99 Ideas.

[Ann Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, here's the thing. This book is essentially a program for teaching ESL (k-12) through content in sheltered classes. What it is mostly is common sense, though--because this is the education field--the authors have tons of research and studies to back up their pedagogy.

I am convinced that this model, or adaptations thereof, could make teaching English to English Language Learners more effective within the required grade content classes, and that such a classroom experience would enhance students' experiences in school. I am not convinced that the model is easy to implement, which is not to say the program is at fault. No, the bureaucracies under which school teachers labor, and the high burnout rate of teachers, and the limited time they really have with each individual student, are what makes implementation difficult.

Useful, easy to understand. Some of the idea are immediately ready for integrating into lesson plans.

[Kathy McC · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is "based on 15 years of research". But, public education has changed dramatically in the past 15 years and many of their ideas and suggestions are outdated. Most experienced teachers have moved into the world of differentiated instruction for ALL students and are already using many of the teaching ideas in the book. Most new teachers are coming out of teacher education programs that focus on differentiated instruction and also have the necessary knowledge. While there are some new techniques, I did not find any more compelling than other books about differentiated instruction.

[Theresa Leone Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a training my school district sent all math and language arts 7th and 8th grade teachers to at Rutgers University. The book is great, laying out specifically how best to teach English language learners, and as my district has many students for whom English is not the first language, it is obviously something we can use. However, it is not just about students who have more than one language, because every strategy and best teaching practice included in the book is good for ALL students. Highly recommend to educators and anyone else interested.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I refer to appendix a (the checklist) whenever creating new lessons, for that reason alone this book is always within arm's reach of my desk.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very through and I'm glad that the methods used in this book were field tested but the idea of this book is still based on an idea that one can rush ENL students to learn English as quickly as one can. There is no evidence that learning English or another language can be rushed or speeded up. In fact at the beginning of the book, the author notes that learning English takes up to 7 years. SIOP is designed for the high stakes testing era in which students must hurry up and do well on standardized tests or punishments for teachers, schools and school districts can happen. They emphasize there is no time to waste in a classroom and everything must be based on whatever the curriculum dictates. It hard to see to how teachers can get to know their students, cultures or adapt material to their needs if there isn't time to get to know them. Still SIOP fits right in and uses many methods that are often found in today's classrooms. That is important in this day and age no matter how dubious education may be at this time.

[Jill M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe I’m being generous with 5 stars, but I believe that this is an excellent resource full of great information about teaching students., particularly English Language Learners. It’s a textbook, so it’s certainly not the most exciting book I’ve read recently, but it is the definitive guide for anyone trying to implement sheltered instruction techniques. If you have even one English Language Learner in your classroom, it is worth taking this book seriously because what’s effective for ELLs is also proven to be effective with all students. It’s basically a guide to more explicit teaching of language and content together, which can be a formula for success when done well. I’m honestly left wondering why my former district didn’t use this across the board, but I imagine there would be teacher pushback because it’s not what people have always done.

[SaraKat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the guide to the SIOP model that swept through education and reached my district about a decade ago. My district doesn't use this format specifically, but the strategies for planning lessons in the book are very helpful. The strategies for EL students are good for general students as well and are best practices overall. There is a helpful advice on making teachers aware of how their ingrained attitudes and expectations can harm their students without even being aware of it or wanting to!

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to revisit this book after more than a decade. While the protocol is really too late g to be used as an evaluative tool (and using percentages to mark progress makes it worthless) the ideas and strategies contained within are useful as I begin planning instruction for ELs. In my own teaching I will likely use this as a planning guide and choose an area of the protocol upon which to focus for a period of time.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find SIOP books boring, like fall asleep boring. The font is smaller and more compact than expected for a book this size. There are too many teacher stories and the book is way too long. Get a SIOP lesson plan template and use it to lesson plan and you should be good to go. It's basically differentiation techniques and lesson structure (activating prior knowledge/building background, zone of proximal development (not too hard or too easy)/comprehensible input, etc.).

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed 30 step process to the best teaching practices for students who don't speak English as a home language. SIOP stands for sheltered instruction observation protocol and is meant to be used when teaching students in a classroom of their English speaking peers. It had a mini scenario test at the end of each lesson to practice identifying best practices.

[Liliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the model in this book. Again, most strategies that are good for English learners are also good for native English speakers especially in the time of low literacy across the board. As a beginner teacher this was great. I think it would also be great for experienced secondary teachers who never taught literacy or never had ELs. It is something I will refer back to if I had ELs in my class.

[Ms. Everitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was part of a District-wide course for teachers this year. What I like most about it is that it makes instruction guidelines clear, and helps set a school-wide standard for clear instruction. It has widely-applicable ideas and easy steps for instructors to follow for better instruction.

[Sarah Meldrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

The SIOP model integrates speaking, reading, listening, and writing into every lesson. This model can easily be implemented for special education and general education, not just ELs! This is an extremely helpful resource for making lessons that follow the Universal Design for Learning (UDL)!

[Sam Mosqueda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good reference. A good balance of theory and practical tips.

[Kristen Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more practical, helpful teaching theory books I’ve read.

[Nicole Afton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my SIOP course in my TESOL masters program. I learned a lot!

[Wilde · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s so vague. It’s easy to write giant ideas and much harder to write detailed plans for how to enact them.

[Ellen]

Excellent resource for sheltered instruction with lots of ideas for multi-level classrooms. The primary gap with this SIOP is that it doesn't go into how to identify language proficiency levels (only how to teach to them once identified) nor how to differentiate and diagnose a language acquisition issue v. a language processing (cognitive) disorder.


I agree with 99% of the research findings but disagree with the idea that students should spend 100% of classtime on work or talking about work with zero unstructured social time. This sends a message that your relationships with others are less valuable in life than personal achievement. This decreases the pleasure of school and creates an imbalanced view of life and is one of the reasons I believe we're seeing a dramatic increase in suicides (more common in Japan, one of the countries our standards are modeled upon). Five minutes of unstructured social time per class period is what I include for what I consider my social pragmatics instruction. Who you know and your ability to connect and build social relationships in life is critical to career readiness and, more importantly, to overall personal and professional well-being. It also builds class rapport and students are more willing to stay on task when given a little wiggle room.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really helpful reading as I will be moving into a position with potentially a lot of English language learners. Three biggest takeaways specifically for teaching English language learners: (1) Have language objectives as well as content objectives, (2) providing opportunity for students to use their first language when necessary to clarify understanding is a good thing, and (3) rather than randomly correcting every English error, notice, group, and teach lessons. With 30 features grouped into 8 components, it's a long list of good teaching strategies that intersects with and contexts all of the strategies I've been amassing over the last 15 years, including differentiation, culturally responsive teaching, and collaborative learning. It's great to have associated quick lists of strategies all in one place (for example, sentence stems for fostering discussion), to have the confidence that I already have many practices in place for helping English language learners, and to have the protocol rubric for continuing to reflect on my practice and grow in helping all learners.

[Fleur-de-lis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a teacher wanting to know everything you can about the SIOP model, this book tells you all the features that you need in a lesson plan. As a parent, you need to ask teachers what model they follow when creating lesson plans. If the teacher responds SIOP model, that teacher knows how to create and implement quality instructions catering to the needs of all students: ELL, ADHD, non-special ed, etc.

[Rebekah Kerr · Rating 3 out of 5]

So helpful for any teacher. The book gives you new ideas about how to plan lessons and things that you might not think about in your classroom. Even though it is mostly for sheltered English classrooms it is very helpful if you have any ESL students....this book would have bored the hell out of me though if I had read this before I started teaching though...

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned teaching strategies that answer my scaffolding concerns and allow me to be creative as well as organized in lessons.SIOP is Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol.
Dr. Harrell is right: teaching is hard work! But with proven methods of reaching students with specific, direct skill instruction and social activities, teaching can be, well, hard work--but well worth the effort.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much that is new for teachers who have a basic grounding in TESOL and general pedagogy. However, the SIOP model provides a necessary organization and structure, purportedly based on research, for teaching classes with L2 learners. Being a fan of itemization, I was especially impressed with the survey to be used as a self-reflection tool or administrative assessment.

[Kristen Fort · Rating 2 out of 5]

This did not present anything ground-breaking. We teachers find that we're already doing some of the things the authors suggested. What irritated me, though, was how the teachers who got 4's on each SIOP feature had last names that were foreign, with the exception of a McQuaid. It was required reading. I'm glad I'm done with it. Good riddance.