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Instruction is "Sheltered"

LKSD Best Practice #12

All instruction is "sheltered" with use of visuals, objects and hands-on learning (SIOP) 

Focus Friday: March 17, 2023

In LKSD we are proud to work with a large population of language learners. To best support their learning needs, we have adopted the SIOP model in addition to explicit instruction as key components of our instructional approaches. 

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What is Explicit Instruction?
Explicit instruction is part of the "direct instruct" component of the lesson cycle wherein the teacher focuses on delivering content in a clear and concise manner. 

 

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What this looks like in the classroom:

  • Remove extraneous information

  • Get to the point

  • Instruction is provided in a highly structured manner

  • Use clear language to guide students through each step of a task, explaining how to complete it, why it’s important, and how it refers back to their prior knowledge.

  • Instruction is supplemented with a wide range of examples

  • New learning is connected to prior knowledge (building background) 

  • Students are required to engage in content through reading, writing, speaking, and listening (R/W/S/L) 

Facets of Sheltered Instruction 

Adapt Instruction

  • Differentiate 

  • Use scaffolds

  • Speak slower, not louder

  • Increase the use of visuals to enhance conceptual understanding

  • Combine oral and written instructions

Clarify Your Expectations 

  • Focus on the big picture; avoid getting lost in the details

  • Identify what you want students to know and do as part of the lesson 

  • Reteach and alternatively teach to support different language levels

Structured lesson plans lend themselves to well defined instruction designed to promote understanding. Whether teaching as part of the DLE model or following a SIOP lesson plan, both models are designed to support language learners and both require intentional planning and give special attention to vocabulary. 

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A sheltered lesson often follows an "I do, We do, You do" model. This approach lends itself to a gradual release of control from a teacher centered lesson to one where the students are working independently. As part of this, the teacher provides plenty of feedback and opportunities for students to practice towards mastery.  

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Strategies

  • T chart

  • Frayer Model 

  • Thinking Maps 

  • Provide visual word banks, sentence frames, and framed paragraphs for written responses 

  • Provide clear models of how to complete activities or problems

  • Break up text into small, manageable chunks 

  • Add visuals (graphs, charts, images) to support texts

Hands-on & Meaningful

These photos were taken during a science lesson in one of our village schools. We like highlighting this lesson because the teacher brought in tangible and relevant realia to support students in their learning.

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We can see in the photos that students worked together to create their own labels of the animals' external anatomy. 

We highly encourage educators to access either the 99 Ideas and Activities or the 99 More Ideas and Activities books to help identify additional instructional delivery and interaction strategies. Both texts are designed to reflect and support the SIOP model and can be used to implement all levels of SIOP instruction as needed. 

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These books are also great resources for generating new ideas to spice up instruction. 

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Look in your school for these books or send us an email to request an additional copy. 

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