SIOP Day 2- Objectives and Techniques

I thought yesterday was action packed, that was nothing compared to today!

With so much information, I am going to have to split today's post into 2 posts. Let's get started!

Objectives:

We teachers are used to having to post our lesson standards and objectives on the board to start our lessons and activate our students' prior knowledge. We have worked on including Essential Questions and "I Can" statements in our classrooms. This is nothing new.

However, we need to start thinking about our students as English Learners, whether our students are native English speakers or not. With the SIOP process, teachers look at 2 Objectives:

1. Content Objective- What we want our students to learn. This objective needs to be written in student-friendly language and should fit the students' age and proficiency levels. This objective states what the student should learn by the end of the lesson.

Sound familiar? Check the Common Core Standards!  Some of the standards are wordy and complex, so they might need to be rewritten to be more student-friendly, but those are the standards to use!

Since most standards can not be taught/ learned to mastery after one day, Content Objectives can be ongoing. However, the Language Objectives need to be changed daily.

2. Language Objective- How or why the student needs to meet the objective. Using high level words from Bloom's Taxonomy, these objectives tells what students will do to accomplish their Content Objectives.
These objectives are going to cover language skills such as vocabulary, developing reading comprehension or phonemic awareness skills, making comparisons and connections, and helping students with the writing process.
Language Objectives use action verbs. They spell out what students are expected to do. You'll find words like construct, compare and contrast, write a summary, paint a picture, design, prepare, conduct, devise... you get the idea. :)

We broke out into small groups to practice creating Content and Language Objectives. Mrs. Jackson and I worked together to create some 3rd grade Objectives. We used 3rd grade Common Core Standards to make our Content Objectives.

3.RIT.9
Content Objective- Compare and contrast the most important points & key details of 2 texts on the same topic.
Language Objective- Create a flow chart of the key elements on a certain topic using 2 texts.

3.L.5
Content Objective- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances of word meanings.
Language Objectives- Conduct a debate about a figurative language phrase discussing possible meanings.

3.OA.4
Content Objective- Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.
Language Objective- Construct a model to demonstrate how your solution will work

Are these the best? No. I'm still learning, but you get the idea. Tomorrow we are going to be going through our Common Core and State standards and creating objectives for this school year.

Now for more Instructional Techniques!

Double up!
Students are in pairs of 2 and choose one student to be partner "A"  and the other "B". Students then take turns telling a story-- HOWEVER-- for every verb the student says, he/ she has to say another one. (Doubling up the verbs)
Sounds confusing, I know. It might sound something like this...

" I was driving, traveling down the road when I saw, witnessed a deer run, scamper across! I screamed, yelled and pushed, applied the brake. I was, appeared to be completely safe."

What a mouthful! We attempted to play this game during our training and it's harder than it looks!
This activity is good for practicing verbs, finding synonyms, using adjectives, and would be good for practicing nouns and pronouns.

Musical Share-
Students have an index card with their ideas (from the lesson) written in it. Students walk around the room while music is playing. When the music starts, students find a partner near them and share their information. Students then listen to their partner's ideas and write them down on their index cards. This activity goes on until index cards are full.

We remember from Dr. Faber's visit that students react well with sound cues. This activity allows for students to get up and move, share ideas (working on writing, listening, reading, and speaking) and practice responding to sound cues. It's a whole body experience!

This activity would be great for math problem solving, book study/ character review, music lesson on how music makes you feel or think, poetry with visualization, or a beginning of the year introduction activity. 

Think- Pair- Share
Tried and true! This technique has made it's rounds in schools and it's a wonderful way to get students thinking and talking in a significant way.
First, teachers allow for students to engage in Private Think Time (around 1 minute) to get their thoughts together. Next, students turn and sit EEKK (elbow to elbow, or knee to knee) and take turns sharing their thoughts. The teacher makes sure to circulate around the groups to make sure conversations stay on topic. Student pairs are then chosen to relate what their partners shared.

This technique is good for all subjects. I let my students use Post-Its during their Private Think Time so they can jot down their ideas, through words, pictures, or doodles. Mainly I want their focus to be on their thinking, and not on others. Other teachers mentioned using individual dry erase boards with their students.

Back to Back
Students move around the room to a beat (or music) with a pencil and paper. When the sound cue stops, students find a partner close to them and stand back to back. The facilitator asks a question or gives a prompt and allows for a short Private Think Time. Students then turn around and share their ideas. 

We practiced this activity after answering the prompt: list as many manipulatives you use in your classroom as you can. I am proud to say, the Clifton Hills crew managed to list 32 different types of manipulatives in the span of 2 minutes! We walked around the room, stopped when the music stopped, and had to list manipulatives that lend themselves to different subjects.

Check out the other days!

Day 1

Day 2 Components and Features

Day 3