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Word Walls for Secondary Classrooms

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SIOP: Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

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As the number of English learners increases in schools across the United States, educators are seeking effective ways to help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

The SIOP Model* is a research-based and validated model of sheltered instruction that has been widely and successfully used across the U.S. for over 15 years Professional development in the SIOP Model helps teachers plan and deliver lessons that allow English learners to acquire academic knowledge as they develop English language proficiency. CAL participated in the development of the SIOP Model and continues to conduct SIOP research.

Learn more about the SIOP Model.

Our experienced SIOP team of educators and researchers provides professional development services on the SIOP Model through workshops, site visits, coaching sessions, and technical assistance. CAL's SIOP team designs and provides high-quality services that address the particular needs of districts and schools. Learn about our service offerings.
Download our SIOP flyer. (4,130 KB)

Frequently Asked Questions

Read answers to frequently asked questions about the SIOP Model, its implementation, and CAL SIOP services and resources.

Online

Institutes

Services

Fundamentals of Sheltered Instruction: Featuring the SIOP Model
New Self-paced online course from CAL
This self-paced online course is designed to help teachers and administrators increase their knowledge of research-based sheltered instruction to support the language and content learning needs of English learners. Examples are based on the widely-used and effective SIOP Model.
Learn more.

CAL Institutes
Join us in Washington, DC for SIOP Training of Trainers Institutes.

SIOP TOT I: Foundations
Designed to help participants develop and deliver SIOP Model professional development.
Learn more and register.

SIOP TOT II: Advanced Strategies
Participants review and renew specific features of the SIOP Model and learn how to support and sustain teachers' SIOP implementation.

Learn more and register.

Professional Development Services

CAL's experienced SIOP team works closely with you to plan, implement, and support instruction using sheltered instruction model.

Learn more.

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As the number of English learners increases in schools across the United States, educators are seeking effective ways to help them acquire the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond. The SIOP Model* is a research-based and validated model of sheltered instruction that has been widely and successfully used across the U.S.

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Pinterest is a visual discovery tool that you can use to find ideas for all your projects and interests.

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Scaffolding: Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology

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Scaffolding: Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology

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Article

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We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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8 Strategies for Scaffolding Instruction

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8 Strategies for Scaffolding Instruction

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With the advent of the common-core standards, our thinking about how to support second language learners has become super important. Our current focus for supportive instruction may be on grammar and vocabulary or we may be modifying the texts English Language Learners (ELLs) work with during a lesson so they're at a more "appropriate level." Under the standards developed through the Common Core State Standards Initiative, however, instruction for ELLs will have to move beyond modifying lesson materials and teaching fundamental components of language. Educators now have to ensure that we are teaching ALL kids, no matter their language background or where they are academically, how to grapple with complex, grade level information and texts.

So how do we do this? Well, a piece of it is thinking more carefully about what supports or scaffolds we can add to our instruction.

Through my experience working as a classroom teacher in an urban school with a large number of second language learners, along with two years experience as our school's English Language Acquisition Teacher Leader, I have identified eight " scaffolding strategies " that I believe should always be considered when planning instruction for second language learners:
Click Here for the 8 Scaffolding Strategies Printable
When I set out to plan a lesson, I always consider how to use any or all of these eight scaffolding strategies to support comprehension and language development.

1. Visuals and Realia

Whenever I can I include realia, or real life, tangible objects in my lessons. I have found that realia is super supportive for vocabulary development and engagement. For example, I recently selected a text about coral reefs for a close read lesson. I wasn't sure students would know what "coral" was, so I brought in an actual piece of coral to pass around. If you don't have realia available for a lesson, use visuals or images! You can frequently find me on Google images, looking for that just right visual to support my lesson.

2. Modeling/Gestures

If you were to observe me teaching a lesson, you would likely see me making all kinds of funny looking gestures. Funny looking maybe, but supportive definitely! When all you do is talk/lecture to students who don't speak English as their first language, most of what you say will probably fly right over their head. Modeling and gestures help bring your words to life. Couple this with the use of supportive visuals and say hello to comprehension!

3. Connect to Background Knowledge

When planning for the "hook" or introduction in a lesson, I consider what background knowledge students might have that I can connect to. For example, I might show them a picture of something related to our lesson and ask them a question about it. Connecting previous knowledge/learning to new learning is always a great support for ELLs.

4. Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers may not be an appropriate scaffold for every lesson, but they are for many! You can create your own or use one of the many free ones to be found on the www. Graphic organizers can be used as a tool to help students organize their thinking when responding to a text. They key is not to make them too complicated or they may end up being exactly the opposite of a useful thinking support.

5. Sentence Structures/Starters

Sentence structures can be a great support for English Language Learners. I often use them during the close of a lesson in the debrief or share. You can also slightly differentiate graphic organizers or recording sheets you provide students by adding sentence structures.

6. Read Aloud

Reading a grade level, complex text aloud to students at the start of the lesson can serve three important purposes: support engagement, support fluency, and give ELLs some access to the text they'll be working with. When reading a text aloud to students, it's important that it is displayed in a way that all students can easily see it.

7. Intentional Small Group/Partner Work

To support students during independent work time, you can consider small group or partner work. I say "intentional" small group/partner work because it's important to consider how and why you're pairing certain students. Pairing two students just because one is a "high" reader and the other is a less sophisticated reader can quickly backfire if you haven't considered how their personalities/work styles might pair up. Additionally, if you have chosen to provide a small group of students with additional support, just be aware of how much support you're providing...hopefully not too much! We don't want to take away all the challenges that a text/lesson presents.

8. Use of First Language

If a student's first language is available to you, then by all means make use of it as a scaffold. I'm not implying that the whole lesson should be translated. However if you can translate important vocabulary words, make connections between concepts presented, or translate specific instructions then go for it!

As a final note, even if you do not work with ELLs, try to keep in mind that good instruction for second language learners is great instruction for all kids!

Thanks for reading, and download your Scaffolding Strategies Printable for free.

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8 Strategies for Scaffolding Instruction

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With the advent of the common-core standards, our thinking about how to support second language learners has become super important. Our current focus for supportive instruction may be on grammar and vocabulary or we may be modifying the texts English Language Learners (ELLs) work with during a lesson so they're at a more "appropriate level."

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Article

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Scaffolding Instruction describes specialized teaching strategies geared to support learning when students are first introduced to a new subject. Scaffolding gives students a context, motivation, or foundation from which to understand the new information that will be introduced during the coming lesson.

Scaffolding techniques should be considered fundamental to good, solid teaching for all students, not just those with learning disabilities or second language learners.

In order for learning to progress, scaffolds should be gradually removed as instruction continues so that students will eventually be able to demonstrate comprehension independently.

Scaffolding Strategies

Scaffolding instruction includes a wide variety of strategies, including:

activating prior knowledge

offering a motivational context to pique student interest or curiosity in the subject at hand

breaking a complex task into easier, more "doable" steps to facilitate student achievement

showing students an example of the desired outcome before they complete the task

modeling the thought process for students through "think aloud" talk

offering hints or partial solutions to problems

using verbal cues to prompt student answers

teaching students chants or mnemonic devices to ease memorization of key facts or procedures

facilitating student engagement and participation

displaying a historical timeline to offer a context for learning

using graphic organizers to offer a visual framework for assimilating new information

teaching key vocabulary terms before reading

guiding the students in making predictions for what they expect will occur in a story, experiment, or other course of action

asking questions while reading to encourage deeper investigation of concepts

suggesting possible strategies for the students to use during independent practice

modeling an activity for the students before they are asked to complete the same or similar activity

asking students to contribute their own experiences that relate to the subject at hand

Implementing Scaffolding Strategies

Let's take a deeper look into how you can implement a few of the strategies mentioned above into your classroom.

Prior Knowledge - A great scaffolding technique is to ask students to share their own personal experiences or knowledge about the topic that they are learning about. Have them try and relate the topic in one way or another to their own lives.

Visual Aids - Visual aids like graphic organizers, charts and photographs all serve as wonderful scaffolding tools because they visually represent what the students are learning about. They are essentially the training wheels students use until they can really get a firm grasp on the information.

Pre -Teach Vocabulary - It is essential to pre-teach any new vocabulary before you send students how with it. All you have to do is simply introduce the new words through a photo or by itself, as well as put the word into context and relate it to something that they already know so that it can will keep students interest.

Edited By: Janelle Cox

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17 Scaffolding Techniques to Use When Introducing a New Subject

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Scaffolding Instruction describes specialized teaching strategies geared to support learning when students are first introduced to a new subject. Scaffolding gives students a context, motivation, or foundation from which to understand the new information that will be introduced during the coming lesson.

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Instructional Scaffolding to Improve Learning

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Instructional Scaffolding to Improve Learning

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Scaffolding Instruction: Support Students as they Learn

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Scaffolding Instruction: Support Students as they Learn

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Reading techniques for any content

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Video

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Student Engagement & Motivation Strategies & Tips

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Scaffolding Reading Comprehension in Social Studies

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Scaffolding Lauren Scharff discusses the Scaffolding approach to teaching.

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Scroll Down: Awesome tables with actionable techniques

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6 Scaffolding Techniques to Use with Students

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6 Scaffolding Techniques to Use with Students

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What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? Saying to students, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes! No safety net, no parachute-they're just left to their own devices.

Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and then read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you might give a child an entirely different piece of text to read, or shorten the text or alter it, or modify the writing assignment that follows.

Simply put, scaffolding is what you do first with kids. For those students who are still struggling, you may need to differentiate by modifying an assignment or making accommodations like choosing a more accessible text or assigning an alternative project.

Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common, though. In order to meet students where they are and appropriately scaffold a lesson or differentiate instruction, you have to know the individual and collective zone of proximal development (ZPD) of your learners. Education researcher Eileen Raymond says, "The ZPD is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance."

So let's get to some scaffolding strategies you may or may not have tried yet. Or perhaps you've not used them in some time and need a gentle reminder on how awesome and helpful they can be when it comes to student learning.

1. Show and Tell

How many of us say that we learn best by seeing something rather than hearing about it? Modeling for students is a cornerstone of scaffolding, in my experience. Have you ever interrupted someone with "Just show me!" while they were in the middle of explaining how to do something? Every chance you have, show or demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do.

Try a fishbowl activity, where a small group in the center is circled by the rest of the class; the group in the middle, or fishbowl, engages in an activity, modeling how it's done for the larger group.

Always show students the outcome or product before they do it. If a teacher assigns a persuasive essay or inquiry-based science project, a model should be presented side-by-side with a criteria chart or rubric. You can guide students through each step of the process with the model of the finished product in hand.

Use think alouds, which will allow you to model your thought process as you read a text, solve a problem, or design a project. Remember that children's cognitive abilities are still in development, so opportunities for them to see developed, critical thinking are essential.

2. Tap Into Prior Knowledge

Ask students to share their own experiences, hunches, and ideas about the content or concept of study and have them relate and connect it to their own lives. Sometimes you may have to offer hints and suggestions, leading them to the connections a bit, but once they get there, they will grasp the content as their own.

Launching the learning in your classroom from the prior knowledge of your students and using this as a framework for future lessons is not only a scaffolding technique-many would agree it's just plain good teaching.

3. Give Time to Talk

All learners need time to process new ideas and information. They also need time to verbally make sense of and articulate their learning with the community of learners who are engaged in the same experience and journey. As we all know, structured discussions really work best with children regardless of their level of maturation.

If you aren't weaving in think-pair-share, turn-and-talk, triad teams, or some other structured talking time throughout the lesson, you should begin including this crucial strategy on a regular basis.

4. Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Sometimes referred to as front-loading vocabulary, this is a strategy that we teachers don't use enough. Many of us, myself included, are guilty of sending students all alone down the bumpy, muddy path known as Challenging Text-a road booby-trapped with difficult vocabulary. We send them ill-prepared and then are often shocked when they lose interest, create a ruckus, or fall asleep.

Pre-teaching vocabulary doesn't mean pulling a dozen words from the chapter and having kids look up definitions and write them out-we all know how that will go. Instead, introduce the words to kids in photos or in context with things they know and are interested in. Use analogies and metaphors, and invite students to create a symbol or drawing for each word. Give time for small-group and whole-class discussion of the words. Not until they've done all this should the dictionaries come out. And the dictionaries will be used only to compare with those definitions they've already discovered on their own.

With the dozen or so words front-loaded, students are ready, with you as their guide, to tackle that challenging text.

5. Use Visual Aids

Graphic organizers, pictures, and charts can all serve as scaffolding tools. Graphic organizers are very specific in that they help kids visually represent their ideas, organize information, and grasp concepts such as sequencing and cause and effect.

A graphic organizer shouldn't be The Product but rather a scaffolding tool that helps guide and shape students' thinking. Some students can dive right into discussing, or writing an essay, or synthesizing several different hypotheses, without using a graphic organizer of some sort, but many of our students benefit from using one with a difficult reading or challenging new information. Think of graphic organizers as training wheels-they're temporary and meant to be removed.

6. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, Review

This is a wonderful way to check for understanding while students read a chunk of difficult text or learn a new concept or content. Here's how this strategy works: Share a new idea from discussion or the reading, then pause (providing think time), and then ask a strategic question, pausing again.

You need to design the questions ahead of time, making sure they're specific, guiding, and open-ended. (Even great questions fail if we don't give think time for responses, so hold out during that Uncomfortable Silence.) Keep kids engaged as active listeners by calling on someone to give the gist of what was just discussed, discovered, or questioned. If the class seems stuck on the questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss in pairs.

With all the diverse learners in our classrooms, there is a strong need for teachers to learn and experiment with new scaffolding strategies. I often say to teachers I support that they have to slow down in order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson may, in fact, mean that it takes longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.

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6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students

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What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? Saying to students, "Read this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by Wednesday." Yikes! No safety net, no parachute-they're just left to their own devices. Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things.