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      • SIOP Feature 1 Write content objectives clearly for students
      • SIOP Feature 2 Write language objectives clearly for students
      • SIOP Feature 4 Identify Supplementary Materials to Use
      • SIOP Feature 6 Plan meaningful activities that integrate lesson concepts with language practice
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      • SIOP Feature 7 Explicitly link concepts to students backgrounds and experiences
      • SIOP Feature 8 Explicitly link past learning to new concepts
      • SIOP Feature 9 Emphasize key vocabulary for students
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      • SIOP Feature 10 Use Appropriate Speech for Students Proficiency Level
      • SIOP Feature 11 Explain Academic Tasks Clearly
      • SIOP Feature 12 Use a variety of techniques to make concepts clear
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      • SIOP Feature 13 Provide ample opportunities for students to use strategies
      • SIOP Feature 14 Use scaffolding techniques consistently throughout lesson
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      • SIOP Feature 16 Provide frequent opportunities for interaction and discussion
      • SIOP Feature 17 Use Group Configurations that support language and content objectives
      • SIOP Feature 18 Provide sufficient wait time
    • SIOP Practice and Application >
      • SIOP Feature 20 Provide hands-on materials and/or manipulatives for students to practice using new content knowledge
      • SIOP Feature 21 Provide activities for students to apply content and language
      • SIOP Feature 22 Provide activities that integrate all language skills >
        • Four Domains of Language Speaking
        • Four Domains of Language Listening
        • Four Domains of Language Writing
        • Four Domains of Language Reading
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      • SIOP Feature 25 Engage Students 90-100% of the Time
      • SIOP Feature 26 Pace the Lesson Appropriately to the Students Ability Level
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      • SIOP Feature 27 ​Give a comprehensive review of key vocabulary
      • SIOP Feature 29 Provide feedback to students regularly on their output
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Provide hands-on materials and/or manipulative for students to practice using new content knowledge.

Giving students an opportunity to touch, move, and manipulate content and language can have a powerful impact on student engagement and on learning.  Students are naturally drawn towards the physicalization of learning.

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SIOP Feature #20:  Provide hands-on materials and/or manipulative for students to practice using new content knowledge.

The first feature in this SIOP component asks the teacher to use manipulatives and other kinds of hands-on materials as a means of getting students to practice the new content.  While it's much easier to blow off hands-on, tactile activities, students find them engaging and meaningful.  It doesn't have to take too much energy or time to create tactile activities.  Here are three easy ways:
  • Cuisenaire Rods:  Students use cuisenaire rods to create a scene from a story they just read.  Then, they describe the scene to their peers.
  • Scrambled Stories:  Students unscramble math problems, paragraphs, and stories that are written on strips of paper and mixed up.
  • Dice:  Students roll dice and perform a task (E.g. ask a question) that corresponds to the number they rolled.
John Kongsvik TESOL Trainers K12 Professional Development SIOP

Strategies to promote responsible usage of manipulatives

John Kongsvik TESOL Trainers K12 Professional Development SIOP
So, the question is not, "should I give my students something for them to handle/hold?"  The question is, "how should I structure this so that students use the manipulatives responsibly, as I planned?"  Research shows that teachers often balk at trying out a strategy if they feel classroom management might become an issue.  Here are three tips on making sure the discussion is worth it:
  1. Teach students how to use:  It may sound funny, but most students probably aren't used to using manipulatives.  Of course, they want to roll the die (off the table).  Yes!  They want to build a tower with Cuisenaire Rods (and knock it down).  You're right.  They will probably be tempted to play with the manipulatives (as opposed to listen to you.  However, this shows us two things.  First, that they are really drawn to manipulatives (like we are).  Secondly, that they need to be shown how to use the manipulatives properly.
  2. Let them play first:  Giving students 3 minutes to build something with the Cuisenaire Rods before you ask them to build something specific is a good strategy.  "Get the wigglies out now!" my third grade teacher used to say as she shook her body.  Why fight against a students' desire to play?  Let them play first.  After just 2-3 minutes, they will be ready to listen to you.
  3. Be specific about expectations:  Students need to know the expectations.  If you do not want them to roll the dice off the table, you can boost the chances of this happening by telling students -  "In order to use the dice, you have to keep the dice on the table. I am giving you a small plastic bowl for you to roll the die in."
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TESOL Trainers provides empowering and engaging professional development

TESOL Trainers can make SIOP come alive for all teaching staff.  Our use of experiential learning, engaging lessons, and scores of easy-to-use techniques empowers teachers with new approaches to connecting students to the langauge, the content, and one another.

John Kongsvik, the director of TESOL Trainers, presents a model lesson on run-on sentences here. The 150 participating teachers become students an get a feel for what the lesson is like through the eyes of a learner.   

Everyone who participates in our professional development says the same thing:  "This was the best workshop I have ever attended."  

To transform the way teaching & learning occur, contact John Kongsvik today!

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