Practice/Application: Features 20-22

Reflection

How do you know when students comprehend what you teach? The answer is, they must demonstrate their understanding. The practice/application phase is where students rehearse newly learned concepts and apply them to real-life situations with hands-on practice. Teachers can model what to do while students practice. Teachers can also observe students' proficiency with academic English. Students' language proficiency will improve because of multiple opportunities to practice during a lesson. I use the practice/application phase as an opportunity to monitor individual students and to have one-on-one conferences with students. The practice/application phase allows students to practice and apply what they have learned in meaningful hands-on ways.

SIOP Feature 20: Hands-on-Materials and/or Manipulatives Provided for Students to Practice Using New Content Knowledge

Read and Respond Paper Toss pg. 128 is an activity that incorporates all four language domains. Students write sentences frames on strips of paper and throw them in the center of a table and mix them up. One of the other students will respond to the sentence frame. At the end of the game, teachers will take up the papers with the sentence frames for later use or assessments. This strategy allows students to practice content and ensures that students are engaged. It can easily be differentiated by dividing students into ability groups and giving each group questions that can be easily answered based on their level of comprehension.

SIOP Feature 21: Activities Provided for Students to Apply Content and Language Knowledge in the Classroom

Oftentimes, ELs are taught language in the classroom but are not provided ample time to practice using the language. As teachers, we must remember that students learn by doing. Student-Generated Test pg. 131 is a great classroom activity that allows students use academic language. For this activity, students are given parameters for creating the test, such as true or false, multiple-choice, or short answer. Teachers should model how to write a test question by creating an example with the whole class. Teachers can assess students' language proficiency based on their questions. Did they use higher level thinking? Does the question include academic language? Teachers can use test questions for a unit assessment. I use this activity in my classroom and students enjoy seeing their questions appear on the test.

SIOP Feature 22: Activities Integrate All Language Skills (Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking)

One of the most difficult components to consider when creating lessons for ELs may be making sure that all language domains are presents. In order for ELs to become fluent in a language, they must use each language domain throughout the lesson. Build a Pyramid pg. 135 is a game that allows students to practice content and use all four language domains. For this activity, students work in small groups. They will brainstorm all that they have learned. Students then use a pyramid graphic organizer to group each concept they have brainstormed by the level of difficulty (easy concepts at the bottom of the pyramid and more difficult concepts at the top). For this activity, the role of the teacher is to ask students. Why do students think one concept is more difficult than another? This activity engages the entire class. It creates a non-threatening environment for students to share  misconceptions about the content. For ELs, it helps keep their affective filter low. It also engages students in all four language domains.