Skip to main content

Having a Plan: SDAIE for Success



In my last blog posting, I stated that I would strive to help my English learners by differentiating instruction in specific ways.  In the most recent chapter of our text, I was happy to learn that my plan is a real “thing” and even has a name!  SDAIE, which stands for specially designed academic instruction, is a method for helping English learners have better accessibility to content instruction.  SDAIE uses specific strategies that focus on communication techniques that make accommodations for students who do not speak English as their first language.  This makes sense, of course, because in order to gain understanding of content, students must understand the language being used.
A good teacher always has a plan.  SDAIE helps to organize that plan.  Arkansas asks that homeroom instructors use only English, but for my English learners, I plan to incorporate many of the strategies that SDAIE recommends.  These include, first and foremost, that I have a positive attitude and recognize that all students are fully capable of learning.  I will connect content to my students’ background knowledge and real world experiences.  I will use modeling, repetition, varied organizing techniques, and lots of student interaction.  These are strategies that work for all students, but are really key in helping English learners comprehend the content that is being presented.     

Chapter 5

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning about the Language Learner and Learning about the Language Learner Labels

Take a second to re-read the title of this post and then try to say it three times very, very fast.  I'm guessing that it didn't exactly trip lightly from your tongue.  Now, imagine a sweet six-year-old child who is being raised in a family  environment that speaks only Spanish.  Can you guess how that kid feels that first day he or she enters an English-speaking public classroom?  That student is probably about as comfortable as you felt trying to say that title three times fast.  As our first chapter reading pointed out, teaching English learners is a complex, oft-misunderstood undertaking.  Every learner has a unique set of background, social-emotional, and cognitive factors that play into how that child acquires a second language.  Good teachers routinely use differentiation to tailor instruction to individual student's needs.  Similarly, good teachers must recognize and implement practices that support English language development by recognizing each English learner
1 comment
Read more

SIOP

The Second Grade Classroom Science video shows how two teachers carefully implement the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model of teaching.   This strategy is a specific method used to instruct English learners.   I talked about it a bit in an earlier post (Having a Plan:   SDAIE), but I very much enjoyed watching two veteran teachers actually putting it into action.   What stood out most for me was just how much careful planning must be used when using this teaching protocol.   Eight specific areas must be addressed:   lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice and application, lesson delivery and review and assessment. It is a time-consuming process and teachers are, if anything, always short on time. Still, I am someone who likes to have a plan, and I will definitely be mindful of all of these steps that should be used when instructing English learners.   Lesson planning takes enormous effort, and since
1 comment
Read more