Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary English Learners: The SIOP Model

Based on the widely used text, Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model, which includes all grade levels, this book is geared towards the specific needs of middle/secondary students and teachers.  The book opens with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of issues in the education of English learners. Each chapter that follows discusses one research-based component of the SIOP Model of instruction and give explicit guidance on how to implement the component in middle/secondary classrooms. Each chapter also includes vignettes of 3 teachers implementing the SIOP Model to varying degrees. Readers have the opportunity to analyze the instruction and rate the lessons. The authors provide their own analysis and discussion of each lesson as well. 

Based on the widely used resource, Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP^® Model, which includes all grade levels, this book is tailored to the specific needs of middle and high school students, and their teachers, as teachers implement high-quality sheltered lesson planning, delivery, and assessment.

Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary English Learners presents teachers with specific lesson plans, strategies, and instructional activities for implementing the SIOP^® Model in their own classrooms. The book opens with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of issues in the education of English learners. Each chapter that follows discusses one of the eight components of the research-based SIOP^® Model and offers specific guidance on how to implement the components in middle and secondary classrooms.

Ringing Endorsements

"As a high school teacher who mentors first year teachers and pre-service teachers. I would definitely recommend [this book]…for ideas on how to reach both ELL students and low-income urban students. [The included] CD with actual teachers teaching ELL students [is] very beneficial. Showing is always stronger than just telling."

  -Madelaine Kingsbury, Overbrook High School, Philadelphia, PA

"I've used all three editions of [Making Content Comprehensible]…I really like the improvements made for each edition and [Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary English Learners] continues the trend. I like the secondary vignettes very much." 

-Barbara H. Formoso, HILT lead teacher, Gunston Middle School, Arlington, VA

Take a Glimpse Inside

• Incorporates the most up-to-date research published in 2008 and 2009.
• Features new vignettes of middle and high school teachers' lessons on the same curriculum topic in each of the component chapters. Readers analyze middle and high school lesson descriptions and use the SIOP^® protocol to rate the degree to which the SIOP^® components and features are implemented in each of the lessons.
• Provides many "use-tomorrow" instructional ideas and techniques that are especially effective for teaching adolescent students, including English learners.

• Focuses special attention on meeting the needs of struggling readers.

• Includes suggestions for writing content and language objectives.

• Includes a CD-ROM with video vignettes of middle and high school teachers whose instruction exemplifies each of the eight SIOP^® components, as well as brief video clips of the authors speaking about different aspects of the SIOP^® Model.

Deborah J. Short is a professional development consultant and a senior research associate at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC. She co-developed the SIOP® Model for sheltered instruction and has directed national research studies on English language learn-ers funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. Dept. of Education. She recently chaired an expert panel on adolescent ELL literacy. As the director of Academic Language Research & Training, Dr. Short provides professional development on sheltered instruction and academic literacy around the U.S. and abroad. She has numerous publications, including the SIOP® book series and five ESL textbook series for National Geographic/Hampton-Brown. She has taught English as a second/foreign language in New York, California, Virginia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Jana Echevarría is a Professor Emerita at California State University, Long Beach. She has taught in elementary, middle, and high schools in general education, special education, ESL, and bilingual programs. She has lived in Taiwan, Spain and Mexico. An internationally known expert on second language learners, Dr. Echevarría is a Fulbright Specialist. Her research and publications focus on effective instruction for English learners, including those with learning disabilities. Currently, she is Co-Principal Investigator with the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES). In 2005, Dr. Echevarría was selected as Outstanding Professor at CSULB.

MaryEllen Vogt, Ed.D., is Professor Emerita of Education at California State University, Long Beach. MaryEllen has been a classroom teacher, reading specialist, special education specialist, curriculum coordinator, and university teacher educator. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a co-author of fifteen books, including Reading Specialists and Literacy Coaches in the Real World (3rd ed., 2011) and the SIOP® book series. Her research interests include improving comprehension in the content areas, teacher change and development, and content literacy and language acquisition for English learners. She was inducted into the California Reading Hall of Fame, received her university's Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award, and served as President of the International Reading Association in 2004-2005.