SIOP Component #8: Strengthen Teaching Through Effective Review and Evaluation

"Recycle the language and the content.  It's good for the learning environment."

The final component in the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Framework is Review and Evaluation.  The features found under this aspect of SIOP encourage the teacher to give a thorough review and a thoughtful evaluation of student mastery of both the content and the language.

SIOP's four features within Review and Evaluation, the 8th and final component in the SIOP framework all point to revisiting the lesson's objectives and assessing student progress.  The first two follow the same thread as previous SIOP components by stressing that language and vocabulary is just as important as the content.  These features suggest teachers give students some kind of a comprehensive review of the key content and the key language.  The final two features in this SIOP component pertain to assessing.  SIOP feature 29 challenges teachers give give students regular feedback and the final feature reminds teachers to constantly assess learning in order to make this happen.
 

1. ​Give a comprehensive review of key vocabulary
2. Give a comprehensive review of key content concepts
3. Provide feedback to students regularly on their output
4. Conduct assessments of student learning throughout lesson

When there is time to provide a comprehensive review of a lesson's language and content objectives, students are given the opportunity to consolidate their understanding and assess their own development.  When there isn't time for a comprehensive review, it may be a signal that you're biting off more than you can chew.  Review is just as important as Building Background.  The fact that SIOP breaks the review down into two features:  one covering vocabulary and the other one concentrating on content is another reminder of how the SIOP framework champions language from the beginning of the instructional model to the end.

A teacher's #1 job is to take the students' pulse and use that data to determine the next best step.  This requires on-going assessment that is rigorous, transparent, and efficient.  We can't afford to wait (nor can our students) to the end of the lesson to take the pulse of the class.  We have to take their pulse throughout in order to gather real-time data.  Here are four quick assessment-type activities students can do that will allow you to take their pulse.

1. ​Tell Your Partner:  At any point in the lesson, stop and say, "tell your partner what I am trying to tell you."  While students share, you can eavesdrop and hear how their understanding matches your own.
2. Don't Explain:  Sometimes we've got to stop teaching in order for the learning to start taking place.  We have to stop explaining/correcting/revising/critiquing and ask our students to do it.  After all, they are the ones who need to practice.
3. Don't Do:  Whenever you get the sense that you are doing for them what they could be doing for themselves, you should stop and challenge the students to do it.  This means correcting something on the board, bypassing out papers, and even grading them.
4. Self-Assess:  Give students plenty of time and support to assess their own progress and to share that assessment with their peers and with you.

Providing students with a review and giving them some feedback on their progress empowers the students in so many ways.  First, it gives them a chance to solidify their learnings; next, it offers them a chance to notice the successes and challenges they had with the language and the content.  Finally, it helps them understand that the process of learning is a matter of conscious competence.  The last feature of SIOP reminds all teachers that they must always assess learning. 

Invite TESOL Trainers to provide professional development on SIOP to your teaching staff; there are plenty of reasons why you won't regret it.

The biggest reason is that your teachers will thank you for choosing such an interactive approach and your students will thank you for making your teachers more engaging.

TESOL Trainers creates an engaging, empowering experience that gives teachers everything they need to implement the strategies immediately in their own teaching contexts.

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