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.
SIOP Feature 21 Provide activities for students to apply content and language
Most of us are pretty good at giving students practice with the content. We also need to cultivate this same skill with ourt students' language usage
Students need to be scaffolded into being able to apply content and langauge effectively.
They need me to model how to use the language.
They need a chance or two to do it with me.
They need a few chances to use the language with their peers in a safe way.
Finally, they need to chance to do it all by themselves.
This Gradual Release of Responsibility is how we empower students to practice langauge they need to own.
Strategies to Promote Application of Language
It can be challenging to make sure that students practice language in addition to content. Practicing the language is not always the same as practicing the content. While it is always best to have them practice both together, we need to make sure they are really practicing language.
SIOP Feature 22 provide activities that integrate all language skills
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.
SIOP Encourages teachers to integrate language practice into everything
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.