Lets Start with Ideas and
Activities to Differentiate
Instruction by
Building Background
Identifying Levels of Language
Acquisition.
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Beginning (Pre-Production)
Beginning (Early Production)
Beginning (Early Speech Emergence)
Intermediate (Early)
Intermediate
Early Advanced
Advanced
Examples of Divergent Responses
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Beginning : “Brown Bear”
Early Intermediate: “The bear is brown.
It has claws.”
Intermediate: “The bear has thick fur and sharp
claws.
Early Advanced: “The bear isn’t a predator even
though it has sharp claws and teeth.”
Advanced: “Before they hibernate for the winter,
brown bears give birth to cubs”
(California Literature Project)
Reading Across the
Content Areas
One of the most persistent
findings in reading research is
that the extent of students’
vocabulary knowledge relates
strongly to their reading
comprehension and to their
overall academic success.
Is It Worth It?
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An average student learns about 3000
words per year.
For students who learn only 1000 words
per year, an additional gain of 300 words
equals a 30% increase for that year.
THIS IS SIGNIFICANT, ESPECIALLY IF
REPEATED YEAR AFTER YEAR.
Building Background
Features
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Concepts explicitly linked to students’
background experiences (SIOP Feature 7)
Links explicitly made between past learning
and new concepts (SIOP Feature 8)
Key vocabulary emphasized (e.g.,
introduced, written, repeated, and
highlighted for students to see)
(SIOP Feature 9)
The Influence of
Background Knowledge
Martin had a funny feeling in the pit of his
stomach. As he walked down the alley, he
thought of his younger brother who had
recently died. What did the future hold for
him? He contemplated his living situation
and the people around him. If only he
could predict the future, he would know
more clearly what he should do today.
Go around the room and find a partner
for each category who is not in your
grade level team.
Reggae
Latin
Jazz
Concepts Specifically Linked to
Students’ Background Experience
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Teach Vocabulary as a pre-reading step
Provide Experiences
Introduce a Conceptual framework that
will enable students to develop
appropriate background information.
SIOP 7
 Most
reading material, such as
content area texts, relies on an
assumption of common prior
knowledge and experience.
Teach
Vocabulary as a prereading step
SIOP 7
Provide Experience
 Read
a story, article, play, or picture
book about the topic.
 View a video related to the topic
SIOP 7
Introduce a Conceptual Framework
Pretest With
a Partner
SIOP 7
Find Your Reggae Partner
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Figure out and write down as many
different ways to link student background to
concepts in your classroom with lessons
that you already teach.
Go Back To Your Grade-Level Teams
As a team share the ideas that you and your
Reggae partner came up with and identify
three strategies as a team that you can use
to Build Background for your students.
Links Explicitly Made Between
Past Learning and New Concept
Build bridges
between previous
lessons because
students do not
automatically make
the connections.
SIOP 8
Linking Experience
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“Who remembers what we learned
about__?”
Preserving and referring to outlines,
charts, graphs, maps, word banks, graphic
organizers.
SIOP 8
Go Find Your Jazz Partner
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Brainstorm strategies for linking past
learning and new concepts that you can
use in your classroom with lessons that you
have already taught or are going to teach.
Now Go Back to Your Teams
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As a team share the ideas that you and
your Jazz partner came up with and identify
three strategies that your team can use to
can use to link past learning with new
concepts specific to your curriculum and
specific to your team.
Key Vocabulary Emphasized (e.g.,
introduced, written, repeated, and
highlighted for students to see)
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Vocabulary development, critical for English
learners is strongly related to academic
achievement.
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Key Vocabulary is more than just the key
content vocabulary.
SIOP 9
Academic Vocabulary
Academic Language For
______________
(Topic)
Content words
Process/Function Words
Words and Word Parts
that Teach English Structure
SIOP 9
4 Principles Should Guide
Vocabulary Instruction
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Students should be active in developing
their understanding of words and ways to
learn them
Students should personalize word learning
Students should be immersed in words
Students should build on multiple sources
of information to learn words through
repeated exposure
SIOP 9
Students should be active in
developing their understanding of
words and ways to learn them.
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Semantic Mapping
Word Sort
Contextualizing Key Vocabulary
Concept Definition Maps
Strategies for Independent Word Learning
SIOP 9
Students should personalize
word learning
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Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy
Mnemonic Strategies
Personal dictionaries
SIOP 9
Students should be immersed in words
by rich language environments
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Word Walls
Personal Word Study Notebooks and
Dictionaries
Comparing/Contrasting Words with the
same morphemic elements (e.g.,
photograph, photosynthesis, photogenic)
aid students in recognizing and using
workds around them.
SIOP 9
Students should build on multiple
sources of information to learn words
through repeated exposure
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Letting students see
and hear new words
more than once and
drawing on multiple
sources of meaning
are important for
vocabulary
development.
SIOP 9
Go Find Your Latin Partner
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Brainstorm strategies for emphasizing key
vocabulary in a lesson that you have
already taught or are going to teach.
Now Go Back To Your Teams
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Come up with five strategies to help
emphasize key vocabulary that is important
to your curriculum as a team.
Building Cultural Awareness & Respect
“People don’t learn respect
by celebrating Cinco de
Mayo and eating tacos.
People learn to respect one
another by working
together.” (Bruce Baron,
1985)
Thanks for being so attentive!
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Please fill out an exit
slip for me telling me
the two most
interesting things you
learned during this
class and …