SIOP Feature #22: Integrate All Language Skills with Activities
 

Giving students a maximum number of opportunities to apply their knowledge and understanding of content and language is vital to their learning.  Applying knowledge is, after all, what we expect our students to be able to do.

The final feature of this SIOP component encourages teachers to seek ways to integrate all four domains of language (speaking, listening, reading, writing) into meaningful practice activities.  This is a powerful way to help students use strengths that they have in one language domain to develop strengths in other language domains.   In fact, the research suggests that the propensity to learn triples when teachers integrate the four domains of language (or four language skills).
 
 Here are three ways to make this happen:

• Information Gaps:  Just like the name sounds, information gaps are activities that integrate the four domains of language into one task.  Each person has a portion of the answers, and together they have them all.  The objective is to share your information with others.
• Group Tasks:  Any activity that has students speaking and listening as well as reading and writing will do just fine.  An example of this would be students interviewing one another on a specific topic, writing down their peers' responses and sharing them with someone else.
• Jigsaw:  A jigsaw is similar to an information gap in that each person has one piece of the puzzle, and together they have the whole puzzle.  For example, each person can read a different article on the same subject, summarize it, and share it with their peers.

Whatever name you want to giving it, there is a lot of research that underscores the value of integrating the four domains of language.  The SIOP Component of Practice and Application remind us of this importance.

The sixth component of SIOP nudges teachers to look for ways to maximize student opportunities to interact with the content and the language.  Doing this in a way that gets students interacting with one another will make it more meaningful (and more engaging) for the students.

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 language, 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."  We offer traditional and remote professional development solutions.