Developing Academic Language with the SIOP Model

In Developing Academic Language with the SIOP^® Model, teachers and teacher candidates get an informative look at how to use the highly effective SIOP Model to design effective lessons that meet high standards, while scaffolding content information and promoting language skills and development for all students—English learners and native English speakers alike—in today’s age of the Common Core and other state standards. The focus is on ways to develop and advance English learners’ proficiency in academic English across all grades and all subjects so they are able to access and acquire information related to academic topics; communicate and produce information in academic contexts; and create and extend knowledge through linguistic, conceptual, and sociocultural choices. The book is packed with practical guidelines, activities, techniques, and sample lessons.

This versatile new book can serve as a stand-alone book for teachers and teacher candidates who might not be familiar with the SIOP^® Model.

It also serves as a companion book to Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners Using the SIOP Model, the popular, research-validated approach for teaching English learners.

Teachers see how to use the SIOP^® Model to design effective lessons that meet high standards, while scaffolding content information and promoting language skills and development for all students–English learners and native English speakers alike.

Building on the SIOP^® Model’s instructional framework, this book offers guidelines and techniques for strengthening academic language and literacy development in all students–especially English learners–in today’s school curricula based on the Common Core and other state standards. The focus is on ways to develop and advance English learners’ proficiency in academic English across all grades and all subjects so they are able to access and acquire information related to academic topics; communicate and produce information in academic contexts; and create and extend knowledge through linguistic, conceptual, and sociocultural choices.

Packed with practical guidelines, activities, techniques, and sample lessons, the book helps educators with a number of teaching and learning tasks such as: determining the academic language embedded in textbooks, classroom talk, instructional tasks, and standardized tests; writing effective language objectives; implementing a variety of techniques that can strengthen students’ academic vocabulary, oral language, and collaborative discussion skills to improve content area reading and writing; and diagnosing aspects of weak or missing language proficiency in order to target interventions that help students reach advanced levels of English proficiency. With this resource as a guide, educators see how to advance students’ academic language abilities to be successful in school.