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:
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Strategies to promote responsible usage of manipulatives
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:
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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." |
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