SDAIE for Administrators

8/8/2019 SDAIE for Administrators

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Quick Write

SDAIE:My Definition

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SDAIE 4 Elements 8-09rev9-09.doc Page 1

LanguageAcquisition Branch

Four Critical Elements of SDAIE

1. CONTENT

Teaching a lesson using SDAIE/Sheltered methodologies involves careful planning todetermine what content is to be learned. Course content is drawn from the California

frameworks and the Content Standards. When teachers have clearly determined the keyconcepts and skills to be taught, they are able to focus their efforts on these essential aspects

of the curriculum, thus avoiding details, activities, and discussions which do not support theobjectives and distract, confuse or overwhelm their students.

In addition, teachers need to consider the language needed to construct meaning and

demonstrate acquisition of a concept/skill. When English Learners (ELs) use language todiscuss and process the content, both communicative and academic language develop. In

order for students to successfully communicate their understanding of the content, carefuland differentiated language scaffolding should be provided.

When teachers clearly focus on both content and language and use SDAIE/Sheltered

strategies academic language develops as a result.

When selecting content, teachers must ask themselves the following questions:

a) Are the major concepts and skills identified?b)Are they specific?c) Does my lesson delivery support the content and language objectives?d)Do my scaffolds meet the language proficiency needs of my ELs?e) Do I select text and other materials that make content clear and meaningful for ELs?

2. CONNECTIONS

Learning takes place when students are actively engaged in an activity in which they areinterested. Students are most interested in learning when they recognize a connection

between what they know and the curriculum, or when they see that the new knowledge willbe useful to them. Meaning is constructed when a connection is made between the

curriculum and the students knowledge and personal experiences. It is the teachers

responsibility to help build such connections between what is to be learned and whatstudents already know. Teachers increase meaning when they select examples fromstudents lives that illustrate the key points of the content being learned. To assure that

curriculum is meaningful to students, the teacher must learn what ELs know and be aware oftheir experiences and cultural background.

Previous learning influences the acquisition of new learning. When previous learning

positively influences new learning, students transfer concepts, processes, and skills to newlearning situations. For ELs, positive transfer takes place when they apply processes and

skills previously learned to new experiences in English. In such cases new learning isaccelerated.


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Teachers can facilitatepositive transfer by using tools, techniques, and procedures whichhelp ELs make connections with their previous schooling and life experiences. Informationdisplays such as graphs, charts, maps, pictures, and models, in traditional or appropriate

modern technology, offer immediate access to new content in a familiar format. When

teachers provide opportunities for ELs to use process skills such as Think-Pair-Share, PullOut and Talk/Write, brainstorming, hypothesizing, and drawing conclusions, the processskills can be transferred to the degree to which they were originally learned.

Teachers must be aware that previous learning may also interfere with new learning. When

ELs must read passages for which they are unprepared, they may supply inappropriateinformation from past learning in an effort to understand. For example, when reading in

Spanish about a gold rush in South America, English-speaking college students withknowledge of the California gold rush supplied details from their previous learning when

they did not understand text in Spanish. Since the two events occurred in different times,places, and circumstances, this transfer of information interfered with comprehension and

led to misunderstanding. Teachers need to be aware of this phenomenon and prepare theirstudents sufficiently. By using scaffolding devices such as Thinking Maps

or other

advance/graphic organizers, teachers assist students in discovering relationships betweenprevious and new knowledge, provide support, and help them sustain new academic growth.

Connecting the content of the lesson to previous learning requires that the teacher carefully

organize the content so that each lesson builds upon previous lessons. Teachers may need touse texts and materials selectively in order to effectively connect new learning to the

students prior learning and to make content more meaningful.

When planning to connect the curriculum with student experiences, teachers must ask

themselves the following questions:

a) Do I link concepts and skills to ELs experiences?b) Do I select and elicit examples from students lives that illustrate key points?c) Do I display information in a variety of formats, such as maps, graphs, charts,

pictures, models, etc.?d) Do I provide opportunities for ELs to use process skills such as hypothesizing,

organizing, categorizing, drawing conclusions, etc.?e) Do I prepare students for new learning by teaching key concepts, previewing critical

aspects, and reviewing related past learning?f) Do I use scaffolding devices such as outlines, Thinking Maps, or other advanced

graphic organizers, to help ELs organize ideas and make meaningful connectionsbetween previous and new learning, and to support and sustain new academic

learning?g) Do I organize content so it is related from lesson to lesson?h) Do I select text and other materials that make connection with previous learning?


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3. COMPREHENSIBILITY

Students at Beginning and Early Intermediate proficiency levels have limited comprehension

in English. This limitation would necessitate teachers to rely on the use of primary languagesupport and content-based ELD to increase access to core content for these students. Thissupport is especially critical when teaching complex skills and abstract concepts.

The intent of SDAIE is to optimally make grade-level content accessible to ELs at the

Intermediate-Advanced proficiency levels. Teachers need to be aware of the potential causesof misunderstanding when preparing lessons and when attempting to clear up

confusion that has occurred. Communication can be successful when word meanings areclear, concepts are understood, context-specific details are provided, and values that

motivate thought and action are understood.

When designing comprehensible lessons for students of varying levels of languageproficiency, the teacher must use as many extra-linguistic clues such as pictures and lesson

modifications as necessary to ensure understanding. When teachers carefully combine visualclues directly with verbal or written communication, they increase the likelihood that

students will understand the English messages. Teachers can use several techniques tofacilitate student comprehension: (a) adjust speech, (b) use extra linguistic clues, and (c)

check for comprehension.

a) Adjust speech. Teachers may need to modify their speech by adjusting from theircustomary native speech patterns to a native-to-non-native pattern. This adjustmentmay be made by enunciating more clearly than usual, or controlling the range and

diversity of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions used. New key words should berepeated in different contexts, charted and posted. Idiomatic expressions, when used,

should be written out and explained as clearly as possible and used in many examplesconsistent with the lessons context.

Some questions to ask about ones own patterns of speech in the classroom are:

1) Do I enunciate clearly?2) Do I control the range and diversity of my vocabulary?3) Do I control my use of idiomatic expressions?4) Do I teach and write idiomatic expressions and use them in a consistent

manner?

5) Do I repeat and write new key words and expressions?6) Do I use many different examples to teach new concepts?

b) Use extra linguistic clues such as realia, pictures, models, diagrams, gestures,charts, labels, and dramatizations. When using visual clues it is important to: (1)provide as many clues as necessary, which may be more than is required for native

English speakers; and (2) make a one-to-one correspondence between the spoken orwritten concept and the clue, such as pointing to an item at the moment you say its


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name. Teachers should refer to clues until students have made a clear connectionbetween the concept and the visual clue. Visual clues should clearly illustrate the

concept. Carefully selected clues can lower students anxiety and increasecomprehension.

Teachers may ask themselves the following questions to determine the quality of

their clues:

1) Do I use extra linguistic clues to facilitate student comprehension?2) Do I use many and varied clues?3) Do I make one-to-one correspondence between the clue and the concept

being taught?

4) Do I repeat clues as needed and requested?5) Do the clues I select illustrate the concept clearly?

c) Check for comprehension. Teachers should continuously monitor for listening and

reading comprehension. Monitoring enables teachers to determine students level ofunderstanding so that adjustments can be made to further clarify the content. Asking

students to indicate comprehension with, for example, a thumbs-up or thumbs-downsignal when asked if agree or disagree, gives the teacher an immediate check. For

more complex ideas, asking students to paraphrase learning to other students orally,dramatically, graphically, or in written form provides an opportunity for the teacher

to monitor whether additional information or examples are needed. Meaning isnegotiated through constant teacher-student discourse.

When checking for comprehension, teachers may evaluate their ability to providestudents with specific and helpful feedback by asking themselves the following

questions:

1) Do I check for comprehension frequently and effectively?2) Is the feedback I offer immediate, specific, and related to the lesson concepts?3) Do I use a variety of methods to check for comprehension?

4. INTERACTION

Learning is facilitated in an interactive classroom that offers opportunities for students totalk with the teacher and with each other about the lesson, key concepts, and their own

questions about the text. The more frequent the interaction, the greater the learning. Such

discussion facilitates learning new information, negotiating meanings, and developing newconcepts. It offers an opportunity for teachers to assess students knowledge levels, monitorstudent growth and comprehension, and adjust the lesson as necessary.


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Teachers promote classroom interaction by orchestrating tasks so that students must uselanguage. Student groups may be arranged in a variety of ways for different activities.When students are learning new and difficult concepts and skills, grouping ELs of the same

language together enables them to use their primary language to better construct meaning,

clarify new concepts, and identify questions and concerns. Grouping ELs with Englishspeakers facilitates the completion of tasks which require application of key concepts andskills. For each student to benefit from any type of group interaction, the teacher must

assure that group process strategies are taught and reinforced.

An equally important component of classroom interaction is the role of questioning. Bothstudents and the teacher should be asked and respond to a variety of questions. Students

should have appropriate time for thinking and responding. Questioning among students andbetween students and teacher establishes a relationship of informational equality and should

be planned as part of each lesson. For some questions, the answer will be known or easilydetermined by the students and teacher. In other cases, neither the students nor the teachers

will know the answer, but through discussion, plausible answers may be developed, tested,applied, and evaluated.

English learners acquire and use academic language when participating in interactiveactivities that require them to apply new content knowledge. Cooperative and collaborative

discussion groups, paired reading activities, writing activities, and journals which allow forself-reflection all promote the growth of academic language. Successful communication in

English provides its own positive reinforcement. Teachers will contribute to studentslanguage development by modeling good language use.

For example, if a student asks, Can you want me to do it? the teacher may restate, Do I

want you to do it? and then answer, Yes, I want you to complete this assignment today.When teachers model in this way they provide immediate and positive feedback, whichenables students to clarify language use for future interaction. Furthermore, providing

students with sentence frames/starters appropriate to their proficiency level also supportsstudents development of academic language and register.

To ensure student interest, teachers must select activities that allow students to interactsuccessfully with the content regardless of their developmental level of English proficiency.

Authentic, orreal-life activities give students opportunities to use knowledge by speaking,writing or making products and ensure interaction in four dimensions: (a) student-to-

teacher; teacher-to-student; (b) student-to-student; (c) student-to-content text/materials; and(d) student-to-self in reflecting on his/her own learning.

Examples of authentic activities include collecting information for polls or surveys and

analyzing results, writing letters requesting information, experimenting, producing plays ortelevision programs, participating in simulations, constructing models, making presentations,

authoring books, writing music and lyrics, etc. For self-reflection, dialogue journals andlearning logs are recommended. Teachers may find audio/video recorders and word

processing helpful for some students, especially those at the lower proficiency levels.


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Questions that allow teachers to evaluate their ability to engage students in interactions are:

a) Do I provide many different opportunities for students to talk about the lesson concepts?b) Do I allow students to clarify key concepts in languages other than English?c) Do I provide many opportunities for student to write about the course content in many

forms such as graphs, charts, outlines, lists, maps, descriptions, and essays?d) Do I provide many opportunities for questioning between students and teacher and among

students?e) Do I plan real-life (authentic) activities that offer opportunities for listening, speaking,

reading, and writing (e.g., collecting information for polls or surveys and analyzingresults, writing letters requesting information, experimenting, producing plays or

television programs, participating in simulations, constructing models, makingpresentations, authoring books, writing music and lyrics)?

f) Do I assist students to develop their language by modeling correct usage and providingscaffolds such as sentence frames/starters?

g) Do I offer positive feedback?h) Do I provide an environment and activities which assure interaction from: teacher-to-

student? Student-to-teacher? Student to student/small group/class? Student-tocontent/text/materials? Student-to-self (e.g., in dialogue journals, audio/video recorders,

learning logs, note taking, student self-questioning)?


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The Critical Elements of SDAIEReading

Content Connections

Comprehensibility Interaction


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SDAIE: Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English

SDAIE is a methodology (a set of specific strategies) designed to make

instruction comprehensible and grade-level academic content accessiblefor English learners (ELs).

Four Critical Elements

Teachers need to:

1. Content Determine key concepts and skills Design lesson objectives that focus on specific concepts and specific language Use district/state adopted grade-level curriculum Choose ancillary text and other materials that will help clarify the content

2. Connections uild connections between what is to be learned and what students already know

ake into consideration:

B

Previous content learningT Processes and skills learned (e.g., Think-Pair-Share, outlines) Personal experiences (e.g., selecting culturally responsive examples from the

students life to illustrate a key concept)

Organize lessons that build on previous knowledge3. Comprehensibility

Combine visual clues such as pictures, diagrams with verbal and writtencommunication

Make a one to one correspondence between spoken and written concept and thevisual clue

Control range and diversity of vocabulary (e.g., idiomatic expressions) Repeat new key words in different contexts and chart them Check frequently for comprehension

4. Interaction Use a variety of grouping Use modeling and sentence frames to scaffold academic language development Make sure students use targeted academic language Ask many and varied questions

SDAIE Definition 10-09.doc


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The Critical Elements of SDAIEObservation

Content Connections

Comprehensibility Interaction

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SDAIE for Administrators