Promoting Building Background to Stimulate Students’ Awareness in SIOP Model
October 25, 2013
This writing has been published for Classroom Language Strategies: Explaining and Exemplifying class
This writing would like to promote building background in SIOP Model (The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) as one of the important parts which basically can stimulate students’ awareness by providing the purpose of the paper, including the case, explaining SIOP Model, the importance of building knowledge, and the benefits, and trying to purpose strategies. In addition, this paper also aimed that through building the background of students, the teacher can be able to emphasize the importance of experiences that can be related to the new lesson.
There is a case in the classroom is about teaching and learning. Fact, students learn more effectively when they have already known something about the content area of the lesson and when those concepts in that field are closely related to their daily life and to their particular background or culture. Unfortunately, sometimes teachers are difficult to create a building background before starting a new lesson. It should be when teachers try to link between new information and the student’s prior knowledge, they activate the student’s interest and curiosity and infuse instruction with a certain purpose (Chan, Lee, & van Aalst, 2001).
Schettini (2012) stated that based on research many teachers feel incapable of working with ELLs because they are uneducated about their diversity (Reeves, 2006; Batt, 2008). Because of the feeling of being uneducated, teachers usually have negative feelings towards ELLs (Reeves, 2006). Now, the question is how building knowledge can stimulate students’ interest in using SIOP as the model. Since the diversity of learners’ appeared negative feelings of teachers.
SIOP Model is a teaching strategy or instructional approach which integrates English with content knowledge and skills (Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J., 2013). On the other hand, building background is a conceptual framework of relating students’ experiences or knowledge based on the transformation, amelioration, and progression of the community system (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2003 and Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J., 2013). Thus, students need builders that can relate it in the direct link between students’ concept about something based on their prior knowledge and a new concept of things based on the lesson from teachers, in order to improve effectively ELLs’ (English Language Learners) academic performance in English and content.
Actually, students need more chances to be the builders of prior knowledge from simple problems until complex (e.g. Bereiter, 2002; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). It can be seen in the real-life context that students and teachers also have different background knowledge (learner diversity) which can influence the way of thinking and learning. The educational system’s role is to create a building background for students, both students and teachers can create comfortable environments (learning activities) to activate prior knowledge if the building knowledge is applied in the classroom (Richards, J.C & Bohlke, D., 2011). The benefits of building knowledge are students can define the concept based on their understanding (Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J., 2013), with personal experiences students can learn by their self (guided discovery learning), and after that knowledge can be actively applied into the real-life (Chan, Lee, & van Aalst., 2001).
In the SIOP Model, building background is in the second part of the model after lesson preparation. Based on this model which is designed by Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J (2013), there are some important aspects of building background. Building knowledge comes from the basics of the lesson, such as vocabulary based on context. The techniques to implement this aspect are contextualizing key vocabulary, vocabulary self-selection, personal dictionaries and glossaries, content word wall, concept definition map. Vocabulary based on context is important because how students can learn or acquire new concepts if they do not know what is going to talk about or define.
Notwithstanding, there is a strategy to promote how building knowledge can stimulate students’ interest in using SIOP as the model, such as scaffolding knowledge building (Chan Lee, & van Aalst, 2001).
Based on Chan, Lee, & van Aalst (2001) scaffolds are metacognitive precise that guide knowledge construction. Scaffolding instruction is tutorial behavior that is contingent (influences and is influenced), collaborative and interactive that can make a child’s entry easy and successful (Wood, 1998 and Bruner, 1983 in Walqui, 2006). When scaffolds are used by the teacher, students are “labeling” their own thinking processes as they put ideas to an inquiry, conjecture, and synthesis (Chan, Lee, & van Aalst, 2001). The example of scaffolding knowledge building is for reading notes when students try to make sense of general knowledge which is correlated. Students can find scaffolds to consider what questions or estimations are posed in the classroom teaching-learning. There are also many techniques to provide scaffolding, it is based on the teaching methods, strategies, and approach that teacher used, such as in oral or written, for individual or group, through interaction or clarifying key concepts without judging students are wrong or right (Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J., 2013).
In conclusion, the most important when teachers deliver a new concept of things, they should emphasize clearly what the importance of the lesson is, why the students should understand and learn the topics, how and when the students can apply or implement this lesson. In order to increase students’ awareness about the importance of the lesson, stimulating building background of students through “scaffolding knowledge building” can be considered as the strategy. The scaffold is just for helping students to activate their building background in studying content knowledge and skills. Furthermore, analysis and researches are required to be advised to the SIOP Model, so that know the other possibilities and strategies which can be implemented. However, in order to make this theory beneficial academically for ELLs, more teachers need to be trained in SIOP.
Resources
Bereiter & Scardamalia. 2003. Knowledge building summer institute 2012: building cultural capacity for innovation. Canada: Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology (IKIT). Retrived from http://ikit.org/SummerInstitute2012/Abstracts/SI2012-Abstracts-Web.htm
Chan, Lee, & van Aalst. 2001. Assessing and fostering knowledge building inquiry and discourse. University of Hongkong. (pp 1–29)
Echevarria, J., Vogt, M. E., & Short, D. J. 2013. Leeschools. Retrieved from SIOP: http://esol.leeschools.net/SIOP/pdf/SIOP%208.pdf
Richards, J.C & Bohlke, D. 2011. Creating effective language lessons. New York: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://www.cambridge.org/other_files/downloads/esl/fourcorners/Pedagogical_Books/Creating-Effective-Language-Lessons-Combined.pdf
Schettini, J. 2012. True inclusion: a case study of the sheltered instruction observation protocol. Retrieved from http://www.smcm.edu/educationstudies/pdf/rising-tide/volume-3/jevi-schettini-mrp.pdf
Walqui, A. 2006. Scaffolding instruction for English language learners: a conceptual framework. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 9 (2) (pp 163). Retrieved from http://www.educacion.gob.es/exterior/centros/losangeles/es/series/201003-Scaffolding-Walqui.pdf
