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How to Close the LEP
and ESL Performance Gaps
A principal’s guide to increasing student
learning by implementing a school-wide approach to SIOP
◊
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Aspiring Leader Program Project 2012
Carolyn Stone
Mentor: Kit Rea, SWZ Superintendent
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Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3
New to SIOP ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Seek Training .................................................................................................................................... 4
Physical Reminders ........................................................................................................................... 4
Focus on a Component...................................................................................................................... 5
Committed to SIOP ............................................................................................................................... 6
Gain In-depth Knowledge ................................................................................................................. 6
Encourage and Facilitate Focused Conversations............................................................................. 6
Continuous PD and a Medium for Collaboration ............................................................................. 6
Above and Beyond ................................................................................................................................ 7
Shared Planning ................................................................................................................................ 7
Peer Observations ............................................................................................................................. 7
Toolkits and Resources ......................................................................................................................... 9
Teacher SIOP Survey.................................................................................................................. 10
Lesson Planning Resources......................................................................................................... 11
Electronic Resources List ........................................................................................................... 11
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Introduction
Sheltered instruction is the practice of teaching rigorous content and academic vocabulary to make instruction
comprehensible. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) is a research based form of sheltered
instruction that includes 8 specific components and 31 features. Implementing SIOP and providing the
necessary training at your school is a CMS non-negotiable for instructional improvement at all school levels.
Recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to closing performance gaps, this resource was developed
to serve as a guide for principals in making decisions about SIOP at their school. No series of steps outlined in
this guide will in and of themselves close the gap at your school. Because a principal’s cognitive load is so
heavy these steps are meant to help you think creatively about what action steps you will take to close the gap
and make a difference for students at your school. The purpose of outlining these steps is to illustrate how a
few small strides can serve as a major launching point to transforming how your school approaches closing the
LEP and ESL subgroup gaps.
It is important to recognize that the steps outlined in the guide are real action steps that some CharlotteMecklenburg Schools have taken to developing a school wide approach to SIOP. While these steps cannot be
explicitly linked as causes to closing the gap, the gaps at their schools are shrinking.
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New to SIOP
Seek Training
Ensuring that your teachers have proper training in SIOP is essential to guarantee that your school is
doing everything that it can to help teach language and content simultaneously. CMS offers a variety of leveled
trainings many of which the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) develops and facilitates. In the 2011- 2012
school year CMS partnered with CAL to offer over 17 training opportunities. CAL is a leader in SIOP
professional development (PD) and a flexible partner with CMS. Additionally the ESL department and
Curriculum and Instruction partner regularly to tailor PD sessions to meet unique teacher and school needs.
Encouraging teachers to attend trainings and offering incentives sends the message that you think it is
important, worth the time and what is right for the students.
STEP 1. Identify teacher leaders in your school that to help lead the school in implementation. If no one
volunteers appoint a master or superstar teacher. Explain the importance of the task and your
motives for selecting the teacher(s) to lead its implementation. Advise the teacher as they decide
which SIOP training is appropriate.
STEP 2. Remind teachers to register for the selected PD. Help support them by ensuring that they find a
substitute. Be resourceful, the ESL department will often pay for substitutes for teachers who attend
these trainings.
STEP 3. Intentionally find time to debrief with your teachers who attend training. Find out what they learned
and how they want to implement it. Follow up with classroom walk-throughs and start a conversation
with them about how it has affected their instruction.
STEP 4. Take it a step further and charge your teachers who attended trainings to present their learning to
their colleagues. This can be done at a PLC meeting, a faculty meeting, through a webinar or
however the teacher decides is best. The key is making sure that these sessions are consistent and
distributed evenly throughout the year.
STEP 5. Take it a step further. Encourage other teachers to attend trainings and to pursue intermediate and
advanced level trainings as well. Training is most beneficial for your teachers and school when it is
ongoing.
Physical Reminders
We do it for our students all the time; we put up posters of reading strategies, rules and consequences.
Physical reminders for teachers should be placed in strategic areas and reemphasize what they should be
doing. Utilizing physical reminders will help keep your efforts to close the gap a main target on the radar.
Though simple, a bulletin board or positive sign in the copy room and teachers’ lounge are good ideas. You can
also make and distribute reminders, bookmarks or handouts to their boxes or at a meeting. Keep in mind that
you do not always have to be in charge of the physical reminders, delegate that task to someone else and let
them take leadership in establishing the school-wide approach. Ideas for physical reminders can be found in
the Toolkits and Resources section.
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STEP 1. Identify what physical reminders are appropriate for your school’s teachers and needs.
STEP 2. Decide on a timeline of when the resources will be distributed. Decide who will distribute them and
how.
STEP 3. Though the timeline may be a fluid document, don’t disregard it. Put in writing what you want to
happen and maintain an updated resource/reminder distribution timeline to maintain consistency. Too
much too early or late in the year can discourage teachers.
Focus on a Component
It is not a good idea to try and implement SIOP all at once. Attempting to execute 8 components and 31
features all at once will frustrate and overwhelm teachers. Identify one component or feature of the protocol to
focus on and perfect throughout the quarter, full semester or year. Focusing on one component and providing a
number of exposures to it, opportunities to practice it, and support in implementing it will help teachers improve
perfect it and improve their overall comfort with SIOP. Tiered vocabulary, emphasis on reading strategies and
building background are features of SIOP that other CMS schools have focused on long term and seen results.
Deciding what to focus on can be a difficult decision. Identify what you know your students need or ask your
teachers what they think.
STEP 1. Identify what component your school will focus on and the timeframe. You can decide yourself, but it
is a good idea to inform your decision using the SIOP Teacher Survey (See the Toolkit and Resources
section) or a variation thereof. When you do decide to send out the survey think carefully about who
should send it out. It can be you, a teacher or a facilitator, but whoever sends the survey, make sure
your teachers understand it is only for the purposes of gauging teacher needs. Also consider inputting
the survey questions into a free online survey through SurveyMonkey.com and send out the link
electronically.
STEP 2. At a faculty meeting give a brief overview of SIOP. You can do this yourself or ask a SIOP trained
teacher to do it. Explain the rationale for focusing on one component at a time. Introduce what the
focus will be and how it will directly impact student achievement. Provide examples of how teachers
can begin to bring the component into their classrooms. Charge everyone to try a certain activity or
strategy in a lesson before the next meeting.
STEP 3. At the following meetings provide opportunities for teachers to debrief with each other on how the
activity/strategy worked in the classroom. For those teachers who experienced a failure, encourage
them to alter it in a way that suits their personal style and try again. At this time you can provide SIOP
instructional coaching, coaching the teacher to effectively use the strategies inside the classroom.
STEP 4. During walk-throughs ensure that you are looking for the activity/strategy in use. Then, in a way that
the teacher likes to be recognized, celebrate their success. If the activity didn’t work commend them
for trying something new and help them brainstorm ways make it work the second time. You can
recognize teachers by sending them a personal email, giving them a shout-out in a meeting or leaving
a note in their box. In whatever way you deem best, make sure they do not think their efforts are going
unnoticed.
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STEP 5. Provide teachers the opportunity to talk about their successes with the activity/strategy and about how
it has impacted students. When one teacher can articulate how it benefited his or her students other
teachers will be more likely to try it themselves.
Committed to SIOP
Gain In-depth Knowledge
As the instructional leader of the school you need in-depth knowledge of SIOP and what you are asking your
teachers to do. You must be able to engage in and facilitate conversations about SIOP with your teachers. You
also need your assistant principals and academic facilitators serving as your ambassadors in this effort and
they need the knowledge too. With this in-depth knowledge all of you should be able to provide basic SIOP
coaching before, during or after a lesson.
STEP 1. To gain the in-depth knowledge needed to lead this effort the district offers special trainings for
administrators which will give you the specialized support you need to coach and lead your teachers.
STEP 2. Follow up your own training by looking into some of the SIOP resources listed in the Toolkits and
Resources section. Take it further and share these resources with your teachers or invest in getting
more resources for them.
STEP 3. Use your knowledge to hold your teachers accountable. Ensure that the feature or component of
SIOP your school is focusing on is a part of your walk-through observation checklist and give
immediate feedback after a walk-through. Using a walk-through checklist form that is returned
immediately following a walk-through is a valuable coaching tool. You can also utilize Google Docs to
do them electronically on your tablet. This will help you document and track your teacher walkthroughs and teacher progress.
Encourage and Facilitate Focused Conversations
Engaging your faculty in focused conversations regarding SIOP can prevent a grade level or content area from
assuming that SIOP doesn’t apply to them. Small group conversations should be focused on how SIOP is
applicable to their group. As their leader you must model how to facilitate a conversation about SIOP. Allowing
your teachers to see how beneficial these conversations can be will encourage them to have them on their own.
Continuous PD and a Medium for Collaboration
One of your key roles as principal is to enable your teachers to reach their full leadership potential. Allowing a
teacher to present to the staff is a growth and development opportunity. Asking a teacher to present to their
colleagues helps you get full value out of the investment in both the teacher and the training. Allocate some of
your meeting time with faculty to allow for a series of sessions that a teacher-leader presents. When done by an
in-house teacher, these sessions can better be tiered, differentiated and individualized to meet your school
needs.
STEP 1. Let the teacher know of his/her expectations to present before they attend the training.
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STEP 2. When the teacher returns, dialogue with him/her and agree on the best way to present the material.
Teachers can even use the SIOP Teacher Survey (Toolkit and Resources) or a variation of it find a
starting point.
STEP 3. For the first presentation or as you see fit, it might be a good idea to preview what he/she will present
to the staff. Previewing it will ensure a higher quality presentation.
STEP 4. Regardless of the system you designate to provide continuous PD sessions for your teachers, you
must guarantee that there is a medium for SIOP collaboration. Some schools have identified
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) as the medium. As a PLC the focus can be on SIOP in
general and or on a specific feature or component of it. Other schools have created courses in MyPD
to give credit for a book study. When teachers have a reliable medium to collaborate they will take it to
the next level on their own. At Winterfield Elementary for example, teachers created their own “SIOP
Strategies that Work K-2” book.
Above and Beyond
Shared Planning
As a principal and teacher everything is a function of time. While there is no perfect solution to solving all of
your time constraints, it is important to be logical and intentional about how you utilize your time. The solutions
to time constraints to create the optimum level of shared planning and peer observation experiences will be
different among schools. During common planning SIOP must be a part of the conversation.
Peer Observations
To implement peer-observations with in-house coverage it is essential that there is a culture of teamwork
present. If the culture isn’t already present you must set expectations that positively build the culture. Keep in
mind that you do not have to micro-manage how the observations get done and the purpose for having
teachers do peer-observations. The goal is that they will reflect on and improve their own practices after
observing someone else’s. As long you have evidence that this is being accomplished the rest can be left for
teachers to determine. While you let them make decisions you must continue supporting them in meeting your
expectations.
STEP 1. Not all teachers are required to do peer observations every year. Learning from observing a peer is
an extremely valuable and economical learning opportunity and professional development. As a
teacher, having a peer observe you is not as anxiety provoking as having your principal or
administrators observing you. Observations outside of the required ones that do not require inputting
information into McREL can be even less threatening and more conducive to building a culture around
positivity and team work. Ask your teachers to go beyond the required number of peer observations
and complete one every quarter, half or year.
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STEP 2. The last thing you want is another thing to do. Do not try to establish every procedural detail of how
these observations will get done. You only need to decide when each observation will be due, outline
your expectations and be available if anyone needs support. Things to consider:
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Teachers can orchestrate how to cover for each other during planning on their own.
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Hiring an all-day substitute to move around the building would be a great way to
protect planning and knockout a number of observations in one day.
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One important component of peer observations is that teachers have a common tool
they are using to observe each other. This observation tool does not have to be a
SIOP checklist, but SIOP indicators must be embedded throughout it.
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Teachers may need some PD about what it means to observe another teacher and the
protocols of what they should be looking for. This will make their observations and
reflections more productive.
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Peer observations should always include a follow up conversation.
STEP 4. With peer observations you are not interested in what the teachers thought about their peers or how
they evaluated their peers. You are already completing walk-throughs and formal observations to
evaluate your teachers. You are interested in holding your teachers accountable to reflecting on what
they saw during a peer observation. Don’t ask teachers to turn in their observation forms, one way to
get the evidence you need is to require teachers do a reflection that explains what they learned from
their observation experience and how it will improve their own practices.
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Toolkits and Resources
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Teacher SIOP Survey
1. How much do you agree with the following statement: “I am familiar with SIOP” ?
1
2
3
4
(Disagree)
5
(Agree)
2. Who do you believe the utilization of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) benefits?
3. As a school, we should help students achieve by implementing SIOP. (circle one)
Agree
Disagree
Unsure
4. What kind of support do you need in the realm of SIOP?
a. None
b. More exposure
c. More resources
d. More practice
e. Coaching
f. Other (please specify):
5. If our school is to focus on the SIOP components, how long should we spend perfecting one component?
a. One per a month
b. One per a quarter
c. One for 2 quarters
d. One for the year
6. Of the 8 SIOP components, which ones are you the best at?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Lesson Preparation
Building Background
Comprehensible Input
Strategies
e.
f.
g.
h.
Interaction
Practice and Application
Lesson Delivery
Review and Assessment
7. Of the 8 SIOP components, which ones would you like to learn more about to improve your students’
learning?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Lesson Preparation
Building Background
Comprehensible Input
Strategies
e.
f.
g.
h.
Interaction
Practice and Application
Lesson Delivery
Review and Assessment
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Lesson Planning Resources
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•
•
SIOP Lesson Planning Reference – Created by EC Resource Teacher, Mountain Island Elementary
School (pgs. 12- 15)
Lesson Plan Checklist – Echevarria, J., Vogt, M.E., & Short, D. (2000). Making content
comprehensible to English language Learners: The SIOP model. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. (pg. 16)
Additional Lesson Planning Templates can be found at http://www.siopinstitute.net/classroom.html
Electronic Resources List
•
•
•
•
•
District sponsored trainings – Can be found on MyPD
CMS SIOP Wiki - http://siopwiki.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/Professional+Development
Union County, NC SIOP Resource List http://sampsoncounty.nc.schoolwebpages.com/education/components/whatsnew/default.php?sectiond
etailid=26905&
Resources to support SIOP PD – http://www.cal.org/siop/resources/index.html
SIOP Observation Forms and Other Documents: http://www.morrow.k12.or.us/sioptools
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