What is sheltered instruction?

Sheltered instruction programs may look different from school to school, district to district, and state to state, but in general, sheltered courses are basically self-contained ELL classes, but they are taught by a content area teacher. These courses are designed to help students acquire both the English language and course content using a variety of teaching strategies. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model is used by many schools offering sheltered courses across the country to effectively teach ELL students.

My district offered SIOP training through the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) two ago (also a few years after we started offering sheltered courses, but at least we finally got training, right? 😉). For more information from CAL on SIOP, you can visit their website: https://www.cal.org/siop/

One of my big takeaways from the SIOP Model (both from the training and what I've learned and revisited through my grad program) are the eight components of the model:

• Lesson Preparation

• Building Background

• Comprehensible Input

• Strategies

• Interaction

• Practice/Application

• Lesson Delivery

• Review & Assessment

What do Sheltered Programs look like?

At my school, we offer sheltered ELL courses in math, science, and social studies. The classes are taught by a certified, content-area teacher and many are co-taught with an ESL teacher. Sheltered courses that are not co-taught have an ESL aide. I've taught with both co-teachers and aides depending on staffing in a given year.

Sheltered courses are not for all ELL students. At my school, when students arrive in the United States, they are first placed in a Newcomers English class where they begin to learn English and then they move onto ESL I, ESL II, and ESL III before moving into mainstream English (some students may start in one of these class depending on their level of English when they enter our school). The students in my sheltered class are enrolled in ESL I or ESL II. By the time they reach ESL III, they no longer need the support that sheltered courses offer. They are able to be successful in mainstream classes! 🙌🏻