Activating and BUILDING BACKGROUND

SIOP: Ensuring that English Language Learners have access to subject-area work.

SIOP Defined: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyqUHWV0XuU

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Example: What is the main idea of this passage?

Tony slowly got up from the mat, planning his escape. He hesitated a moment and thought. Things were not going well. What bothered him most was being held, especially since the charge against him had been weak. He considered his present situation. The lock that held him was strong but he thought he could break it. He knew, however, that his timing would have to be perfect. Tony was aware that it was because of his early roughness that he had been penalized so severely—much too severely from his point of view. The situation was becoming frustrating: the pressure had been grinding on him for too long. He was being ridden unmercifully. Tony was getting angry now. He felt he was ready to make his move. He knew that his success or failure would depend on what he did in the next few seconds.

From Anderson, Schallert, and Goetz (1977)

Essential Understandings

1. When adequate background knowledge is developed, material is better understood and retained.

2. ELs are not necessarily lacking in schema, they lack schema within the American academic system.

3. Some have not developed academic schema; others have developed it from a different perspective.

Developing an ELL – Friendly Lesson Plan

What does “develop background” mean?What are the specific instructional actions

you should include?

SIOP Elements for Backgrounding

1. Increase student background knowledge before teaching a unit

2. Encourage ELLs to make connections between what they already know and new material.

3. Embed new learning in a meaningful context (ELLs “care”)

4. Connect learning to real life.

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Issues: Schema with ELL Learners

STEPS IN THE BACKGROUND BUILDING PROCESS

1. Students need to retrieve the knowledge they have

2. You need to assess what they know about the topic

3. You need to fill in the gaps of knowledge

4. You need to tie your new “inputted” knowledge with what they already know.

Focus on meaning is forgotten in ELLs◦ When ELLs are struggling to decode language, they may forget to make sense of

the message; They may need to evoke the correct schema to understand

Mr. Ramos

Unit Plan for an English Language Learner Cluster Class: An Example

Instructional Example (from Echevarria and Graves)

Mr. Ramos – Marine Life in the Caribbean

Phase One: Finding Out What is Known◦ In collaborative groups,

students brainstormed their own experiences with ocean life. Teacher debriefed and copied down the generated info on transparency.

◦ Mr. Ramos typed up experiences and distributed to class the next day.

◦ Mr. Ramos introduced vocab. With theme words.

Phase Two: Building More Background◦ Mr. Ramos showed a

National Geo movie on marine life in the Caribbean. Students took notes and shared what they learned.

◦ The teacher and students read a book together about marine life.

◦ Mr. Ramos took them to an aquarium where the students did a scavenger hunt for Caribbean sea life.

Phase Three: Practice and Expand Background (optional)◦Students chose one

sea animal to research (at library… notes on cards), to draw, to map.

◦Students wrote a short written report.

◦Students did a PowerPoint about their animal for presentation to the class.

PHASE ONE PHASE TWO / THREE

1. Awaken the knowledge that the students possess.

2. Ask students to organize that knowledge.

3. Find out what students do NOT know.

1. Provide knowledge.2. Provide words to

describe the knowledge.

3. Provide experiences that deepen the knowledge and develop schema.

Providing Background Knowledge

Determine What Your Students know and don’t know….

Simply, before you begin a new topic, find out what the students already know. You do this for two reasons:◦ Do the students already know quite a bit about the topic and so

you just need to review and fill in the gaps?

◦ Have the students never been exposed to this topic before and thus will have very little schema and very little or no prior background knowledge? In that case, you will need to start from the very beginning of the topic.

◦ Is there a mixed schema class? Do some of your students know quite a bit and some know very little or nothing at all?

Strategies for Finding Out What is Not Known

1. Simple brainstorm2. KWL Chart3. Questions: Thumbs up / Thumbs down4. Graphic organizer fill-ins5. Journal about topic6. Draw and label7. Post-It Notes in answer to blackboard

questions8. White (response) boards

Assessing and building background Ask students to fill

out a spider map or Concept Definition Map prior to teaching—take a quick look and assess their background

Practice: Cinderella…What is known?

Work with a partner: choose one of the strategies for assessing background knowledge.

Each partner will assess the other partner’s background using one of the strategies. (Each must use a different strategy.)

When finished, discuss what an ELL is likely to know?

Strategies for Building Background

Visual Input

Auditory Input

Knowledge Input

How would you build background for Cinderella?

Visual Input Auditory Input

Text Input

Use media or visuals to introduce new concepts

◦ (films, photos, realia, picture from picture dictionaries, labeled scenes, etc.)

Visual Input

1. Teacher or student-taken photographs2. Old textbooks or line drawings from workbooks3. Illustrations from children’s books4. Videos of all kinds (Your own and commercial)5. Picture dictionaries (ex. Oxford)6. Commercial image books7. Magazines and catalogues8. DIGITAL /NEW MEDIA NARRATIVES9. Realia!! Of all kinds10.OTHERS??

Photos: Dinner with an American Family

Plate

And, of course, PowerPoint

Auditory Input

Audacity audio files of vocab words and definitionsAudio files of content, teacher madeAudio commercial podcastsTV show assignmentsPhone messages Skype interviewsAudio files of real Americans in conversationAudio files of vocabulary lists with commentary

Audio / Visual Media Formats such as digital stories

Digital Jumpstarts: Ece Cakmak

Knowledge Input

Print Input: Generally easier text on same topic

Parallel material from the internet, below grade textbook or ESL book prior to assigned grade level reading.

Strategies for helping ELs to understand content text

TEXT ADAPTATIONS

1. Highlighted text2. Taped text3. Rewritten/adapted

text4. Native language

texts or annotations

READING STRATEGY TRAINING

1. Marginal notes2. Sticky note

annotations

SIOP p. 31, Ms. Chen

Activity: 10 minutes◦Go over the excellent Teaching Scenario of Ms.

Chen.◦Make a list of all of the lesson preparation /

lesson adaptations she does and makes to help her ELLs understand the material.

For Content Teachers: Jump Starts

“Jump starts” are short small-group mini-lessons that precede the regular whole class lesson.

In the Jump Start group, the teacher Reviews necessary background concepts Introduces vocabulary Does a “text-walk” through the material to be

read Engages in simulations or hands-on activities Builds language skills