1. The SIOP® Model BUILDING BACKGROUND
NC Guide to the SIOP Model Institute The SIOP Model Overview
The SIOP® Model BUILDING BACKGROUND
1 min
Like SIOP, WIDA also underscores the importance of Building Background. The notions of language and culture as valuable resources and the influence of past experiences are stated in the first two of WIDA’s Guiding Principles:
Students’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be tapped and incorporated into schooling.
Students’ home, school, and community experiences influence their language
development. 1 1

2. Content Objectives We will:
Identify techniques for connecting students’ personal experiences, cultural background, and past learning to lesson concepts.
Explain the key elements of academic language.
1 min
Present the objectives in a variety of ways:
Ask participants to read them aloud.
Ask one participant to read them aloud.
Ask participants to read them silently.
The presenter reads them.
The next 3 ideas are from Making Content Comprehensible 4th edition, Teaching Ideas for Lesson Preparation p. 44
Ask participants to pick out important words from the objective and highlight them.
Ask participants to paraphrase the objective with a partner, each taking a turn, using the frame: “We are going to learn___”.
Present the objective and then do a Timed Pair-Share, asking participants to predict some of the thing they think they will be doing for this section. 2

3. Building Background Features
Concepts
Linked to
Students’
Background
Bridge
Past + New
Learning
Develop Key
Vocabulary
3 mins HO: Principles of Language Development #1 and#2 in SIOP Overview section
Help participants to understand that there are 3 features to Building Background that enhance the effectiveness of our lessons---SIOP helps teachers to explicitly link concepts to students’ background experiences, develop academic English, and make explicit connections between new learning and concepts previously learned. We are using the word “bridge” instead of SIOP’s word “link” past and new learning because of our mnemonic device to help us remember these features.
Get participants involved through hand gestures. Explain to participants that the use of body movements with content concepts is a good ESL strategy.
Read Feature #1 – Model creating a link with thumb and pointer finger interlocking as a chain. Have participants copy creating a link with hands and reading aloud feature.
Read Feature #2 – Model turning an imaginary key. Have participants copy action and read aloud feature.
Read Feature #3 – Model creating a bridge sweeping your hand over your head from back to front symbolizing a bridge from past to new. Have participants copy action and read aloud feature.
Repeat and Review as a group all 3 features using hand gestures*.
WIDA supports SIOP’s features in Building Background. WIDA includes socio-cultural context in its features of academic language chart and WIDA links to students’ background in its 10 Guiding Principles.
Guiding Principal #1 and#2 (HO). Furthermore in its definition of academic language, WIDA expands academic language beyond the word level, vocabulary, so that sentence level and discourse level are also addressed.
*Note: Throughout the presentation the presenter may want to refer back to these gestures while introducing each feature in detail.
Content Words
Academic Language
Words and Word Parts

4. Building Background Features
Concepts
Linked to
Students’
Background
Bridge
Past + New
Learning
Develop Key
Vocabulary
30 sec
The first feature we will explore is concepts linked to students’ background.
Content Words
Academic Language
Words and Word Parts

5. Concepts linked to students’ background experiences
1 min
A learner’s knowledge of the world – his schemata - provides a basis for understanding, learning, and remembering facts and ideas found in texts. Students with knowledge of a topic have better recall and are better able to elaborate on aspects of the topic than those who have limited knowledge of it.
English language learners, however, come from diverse cultural backgrounds. They may struggle with a text or concept because their schemata does not match those of the culture for which the text was written. We have to acknowledge that many of our ELs, even those born in the US, have an array of experiences that are quite different from those of the majority US culture. Therefore, it will help us to be aware of some of these cultural differences. Let’s talk about culture for a few minutes. CLICK to next slide.
varviraamat.blogspot.com

6. Deep Culture vs. Surface Culture
music
dress
food
dating
family ties
5 min
All of the social and cultural processes in the student‘s life - in all contexts-home, school, community, and the broader society is commonly known as the student’s culture.
An iceberg is often used to illustrate culture. What we see of the iceberg represents surface culture.  This is a very small part of what makes up “culture”.
That part of the iceberg under the water represents deep culture, the non-tangible aspects of culture. They are not seen at the surface. Like the iceberg, most of what is defined as culture is not visible, but it is there.
Have participants do this activity with a partner in a think-pair-share. Have participants think of aspects of surface culture and then share with their partner. Then have them think of aspects of deep culture and share with each other. Ask some pairs to report out. After they provide examples of surface culture CLICK to bring up “dress, music, food”. Restate that surface culture is what we can see. It is the most obvious aspects of culture.
Ask other pairs to provide examples of deep culture. CLICK to bring up. These are only some examples of surface and deep culture.
concepts of time
beliefs
health & medicine 6

7. Socioculturally Supportive Climate
How are we doing in creating a socioculturally supportive climate?
What can I do in my classroom?
Do I know about the different cultural backgrounds of my students?
1 min
Food for thought. How can we use information about our students’ culture to increase academic achievement? What can we do to make our school and classroom climate positive for all? How can I tap into students’ languages and cultures as valuable resources following WIDA’s first Guiding Principle and this feature in Building Background?
WIDA Guiding Principle: 1. Students’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be tapped and incorporated
into schooling.

8. Academic Differences MATH
In some Latin American countries
A comma is used to separate a decimal from a whole number: 0,5 instead of 0.5
Division may be done in a different way: 127|4
31,75
A period is used to indicate thousands: to indicate three thousand.
1 min
Even how we do math and write numbers can vary culturally. These differences may be small, but they can cause confusion.
In some European and Latin American countries the divisor is to the right of the dividend, and separated by a vertical bar. The division also occurs in the column, but the quotient (result) is written below the divider. Source: 8

9. More Academic differences
Dates are written differently:
5/7/90 would mean July 5, 1990.
Days of the week and months of the year are not capitalized in Spanish.
Discourse patterns differ among cultures.
1 min
Dates are written differently. The majority of the world’s countries write the date as day, month, year; unlike the US which uses month, day, year.
Discourse patterns differ among cultures from the American linear style to the Asian circular approach. The linear pattern is thesis/topic sentence, main idea, support , conclusion. In the Asian, circular pattern, thought is developed indirectly. To directly address the main idea or issue is considered very rude. In Romance languages, which includes Spanish, development is by digression; takes lots of time; begin with topic, go off on tangent, contradict tangent, conclude with main idea; flowery, fancy, formal, intensifiers, reiteration, say it up to 7 times (average is 3 times) each time gets bigger, better, more flowery than before.
Sending a message in English discourse pattern may come across as a rude command to parents
How will knowing about discourse patterns help you? (possible response: Teach students the discourse pattern of American English explicitly along with subject area content. Students cannot read nor write standard English if they do not know the discourse pattern expected. 9

10. If no link, Build Background
Culturally embedded:
Political cartoons
Ground Hog Day
A day at the beach
Cultural assumptions: e.g. Frosty the Snowman
Fairy tales: e.g.Cinderella
American history
1 min
Sometimes linking to past experience is not enough because students don’t have the same past experiences that native-English speakers have had. Thus, this feature also demands building background knowledge as needed. The topics above may be such topics that require background building. Others might be the American Revolution, the Civil War, etc.

11. Building Background Features
Concepts
Linked to
Students’
Background
Bridge
Past + New
Learning
Develop Key
Vocabulary
1 min
According to Michael Graves, vocabulary expert, English learners need to learn something like 40,000 words by the time they complete eighth grade. Other researchers tells us that you have to know 95% of the words in a text to understand it. Therefore, our students will need many opportunities, many approaches, and lots of motivation and encouragement to build strong vocabularies.
(Hu, M., & Nation, P. (2000). Unknown vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language. 12(1), )
Content Words
Academic Language
Words and Word Parts

12. Cognates!!! Social Language Spanish Academic Language farming
agricultura
agriculture
job
ocupación
occupation
grown-up
adulto
adult
stick
adherirse
adheres
country
nación
nation
quiet
calma
calm
same
equivalente
equivalent
3 min
A WIDA Guiding Principle: #4. Students' academic language development in their native language facilitates their academic language development in English. Conversely, students' academic language development in English informs their academic language development in their native language, informs us to make our students aware of cognates that may exist between their language and English. Ask a participant to define “cognate”.
Cognates are particularly helpful to our Spanish speakers as there are thousands of Spanish cognates.
There may not be cognates between some language and English (Chinese and Korean). However, in Japanese there are some words that have been adopted in their language, for example “takushi” is taxi in Japanese. Other languages may use English words I their language. In Korean a computer is a computer. It is not called something different’ the English word was added to Korean.
For examples of cognates: see 99 Ideas and Activities for Teaching English Learners with the SIOP model p
**Also remind participants of the HUGE number of web resources available on the Internet and that they are very, very easy to find.
Also mention false cognates: el éxito means “success” not exit, embarazada is used to mean pregnant, not embarrassed.

13. Word Parts: Roots and Affixes
How can we help students learn vocabulary?
prefix + root + suffix
2 min
By grade 6, native-English speakers have acquired words each year. It would be extremely difficult for ELs to learn all the words they need to know through instruction and memorization. Therefore, all teachers, must help students learn that many English words are formed with roots to which prefixes and suffixes are attached. For example, if a science teacher is teaching photosynthesis, he/she can help students learn the meaning of photosynthesis by introducing the meaning of the root, photo-(light). By comparing the words photosynthesis, photocopy, photograph, photo-finish, photogenic, students can see how these English words are related by both structure (prefix+root+suffix) and meaning.
Jazz chant: Prefix on the left (hold left hand/arm up in an “L”); root word in the middle (hold hands in the middle); suffix at the end (hold right hand up), shsh…
MCC p. 72 lists 14 roots that provide clues to the meaning of over 100,000 words.
Prefix on the left; root word in the middle; suffix at the end, shsh…

14. 97% of Affixes in K-12 Prefixes Suffixes dis- (not, opposite of)
in-, im-, il-, ir-, (not)
re- (again)
un- (not)
-ed (past tense of verbs)
-ing (present participle of verbs)
-ly (characteristic of)
-s, -es (plural of nouns and present tense of verbs)
1 min
Shown are 97% of the prefixes and suffixes found in K-12 academic English. They need to be taught! Pick these for the most impact.

15. Tiers of Language Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 1 min
In Making Content Comprehensible p and in Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards ELA, the 3 levels, or tiers, of words described by Beck, McKeown, and Kucan are discussed. These researchers have grouped words in terms of their commonality, more to less frequently occurring; and applicability, broader to narrower. Margarita Calderon whose work we use in North Carolina in the ExC-ELL program has reformulated/expanded Beck’s work to pertain to English learners and we encourage you to use Margarita’s model when thinking of which words to teach. The next slide will show us what each tier includes according to Dr. Calderon’s model.
Note: Calderon’s model is not exactly the same as Beck’s.

16. Three Tiers (M. Calderón)
Basic Vocabulary
Sight words, nouns, adjectives
Multiple Meanings /polysemous words
Tier 2
Used across curriculum
High frequency
Phrasal expressions
Multiple meanings
Homophone
Idioms
Tier 3
Content specific
Low frequency
2 min
Tier 1 words are those common words that often we must teach because spelling and pronunciation trip up ELs. Sometimes we can teach these “on the fly” that is, by showing a picture or performing an action…words like water, rug, plant, car, sit
Tier 3 words are those content –specific words that only occur in a certain subject….photosynthesis, circumference, legislature
Tier 2 words are the vast majority of words. These are very high frequency, transition words, connectors, sophisticated words for rich discussions and specificity in descriptions…words such as swayed or periphery. They also include many words with multiple meanings as well as those process words like analyze, determine, classify, compare that occur across all content areas. Tier 2 words rarely get the attention ELs need. Note: another word for multiple meaning is polysemous words.
We want to address all 3 tiers in all passages.

17. Tier 2 Words in State Exams (M
Tier 2 Words in State Exams (M. Calderón) : absence, accuracy, additive, effect, affect, allow, apparent, approach, arrange, assortment, assumption, basis, bases, behavior, belief, body, boundary, core, criteria, crucial, depict, deplete, device, display, distinct, generate, impact, illustrate…
30 sec
Tier 2 words are all over the state tests. Often students cannot answer a content questions because they are stumped by the Tier 2 words. We need to teach words like the following. 7th and 8th grade state tests.

18. Idioms and Sayings
“It’s raining cats and dogs out there!” “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” “You need to get your ducks in a row” “He talks out of both sides of his mouth!” ___________________________
2 min
Idioms are more tier 2 examples that need to be purposefully addressed.
The participants fill in the last two. Throw a soft ball to a table to initiate responses.

19. Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 Simple words Process, Idioms, Sophisticated
Content Words, Key Vocabulary
wish
rule
summoned
gray
take care
fortunate
queen
replied
generation
castle
no matter what
elderly
persistently
faithful
2 min
Does your list look similar to this one? If not, don’t worry. It’s not as important to put these words in the right tier as it is to identify them to teach! There is no magic list of tiered words. We use our best judgment.
Calderón & Associates

20. Building Background Features
Concepts
Linked to
Students’
Background
Bridge
Past + New
Learning
Develop Key
Vocabulary
1 min
Get participants involved through hand gestures.
Read Feature – Model creating a bridge sweeping your hand over your head from back to front symbolizing a bridge from past to new. Have participants copy action and read aloud feature.
Content Words
Academic Language
Words and Word Parts

21. How Can We Bridge Past Learning to New Concepts?
SIOP says be…
Explicit
Intentionally planned
Do a brief review of prior lesson
3 min
Activity (2 options): a) Write on a sticky note how you presentlybridge past learning to new concepts. Find someone with the same color clothes as you and share ideas.
b) Use padlet.com to allow participants to post their ideas on how teachers can link past learning to new concepts. (This will need to be set up at least a day or two before the training so it can be a password-protected site. The finished product is wallwishers – post-its on the wall.)
If you are unfamiliar with padlet.com you need to look at it before the training.
After these are posted CLICK to bring up what SIOP says and explain per the notes below if these have not already been noted in padlet.com.
Making Content Comprehensible suggests:
Explicitly ask, “Who remembers what we learned about_____? How does that relate to our chapter?”
Intentionally review graphic organizers, previously used class notes, PPT slides, word banks, outlines, maps
Review prior lesson what may look like a lack of prior knowledge may be a lack of accessibility in prior lessons that were taught. Perhaps the background materials was “covered,” but it was not learned meaningfully.

22. What Can I Use Right Away
to Help My ELLs?
2 min
To wrap-up let’s do a quick-write. Begin your sentence with “I can…” and write something you learned or an activity that you saw in Building Background that you can take back and use in your classroom right away!! Then share at your table.