0. Workshop Facilitator Jen Himmel jhimmel@cal.org
Using the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model to Implement Effective Instruction for English Learners
Workshop Facilitator
Jen Himmel
Use for title slide. 1

1. Why Build Background?
A reader’s schema – knowledge of the world – provides a basis for understanding, learning, and remembering facts and ideas found in texts.
Students from culturally diverse backgrounds may struggle to comprehend texts and concepts due to a mismatch in schemata.
Most reading material, such as content area texts, relies on an assumption of common prior knowledge and experience. 1

2. through making explicit links
Building background
through making explicit links
Students’ life experiences
Content knowledge

3. “One of the most persistent findings in reading research is that the extent of students’ vocabulary knowledge relates strongly to their reading comprehension and to their overall academic success.”
Lehr, Osborn, & Hiebert, 2005
Lehr, F., Osborn, J., & Hiebert, E. (2005). A focus on comprehension. Research-based practices in early reading series. Honolulu, HI: Pacific Resources for Education and Learning. 3

4. Thinking about Words
Jan bought a new stecker at the hardware store. She needed a stecker for her minkle. Everybody knows that a minkle won’t dreep if it doesn’t have a good stecker.
What did Jan buy?
What did she need it for?
What would have happened if Jan hadn’t bought it?
NEW

5. Thinking About the Words…
What is a stecker?
What is a minkle?
What does it mean to dreep?
Can you use each of these words in a sentence that shows you understand its meaning?

6. Vocabulary Research
Adequate reading comprehension depends on a person already knowing 90–95% of the words in a text (Nagy & Scott, 2000).
Four groups have smaller vocabularies than needed at their grade level: special education, hearing impaired, students with low SES, second language learners.
number 1: We always ask kids to figure out the meaning of words in context, but that only works when they already know most of the words. We need to teach vocabulary explicitly in order for them to understand it.
Nagy, W. E., & Scott, J. A. (2000). Vocabulary processes. In M. L. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 6