ESL Feature: Dynamic SIOP Training!

Pictured above: GDOE educators, Guam Education Board Member Dr. Jose Cruz, and UOG Administrator Larry Gamboa of Professional International Programs, pose with SIOP Trainer Martha Trejo.

Pictured above: SIOP Trainer Martha Trejo (center) pose with LBJ Elementary School ESL Teachers/Coordinators, Lois Taitano Gumataotao (left) and Dr. Matilda Naputi Rivera (right).

Dynamic SIOP Training!

An engaging SIOP Training for Teachers was held June 2-4, 2011 at the Holiday Resort in Tumon. Our trainer was Martha Trejo from Texas. She is a dynamic Pearson trainer! I can just hear her say, "If you can hear me, raise your hand."

Among the topics we explored included the following: second language acquisition theories, the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model of Sheltered Instruction, lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice & application, lesson delivery, review & assessment, lesson planning, and implementation of the SIOP Model.

Further highlights included the following:
*Students do most of the work & the teacher does less.
*90% retention w/student interaction. Model it, and then let the students do it.
*Use it with your best subject.
*Focus is not on you. Focus is on the students.

Some of the motions we learned included the following:
*First you begin with lesson preparation (put fingers on head).
*Then you build background knowledge (place fingers in back of head).
*Stir in the strategies (stir with hands)
*Add interaction (clap with hands side by side)
*Practice and application (move arms up and down like you're exercising)
*Comprehensible input (Place finger to lips)
*Lesson delivery (Action of pizza delivery with arm moving in the air)
*Review and assessment (Move body back and then forward)

We were truly interactive in various activities, including the Inside-Outside Circle, Conga Line, Stay and Stray, Role Play, personifying objects, line activities, simultaneous round table, and more!

We were reminded that the goals are the standards, and the language focuses on "What language do my children need?"

The activity is not the goal. The activity supports the goal.

We discussed the importance of instructional scaffolding involving concrete, pictorial, and abstract stages.

It is essential that we build capacity and support each other. For further details, you may e-mail Martha at martha.trejo@pearson.com She trains from the heart, and she has empowered us with the strategies necessary for us to SIOPize!