9/22

I have seen the SIOP model in action and I feel like this is a great model to use. Teachers are still able to use whatever method they prefer, while giving some extra reinforcement to the students. This model can benefit everyone in the class, whether ELL's or not. It allows the ELL's to still be engaged in the activity and learn what the rest of the class is learning. It's great that the teacher does not have to be specialized in ESL or bilingual education either, which makes it a perfect tool for mainstream teachers that have a few ELL's in their classroom. It is unfortunate though, that many elementary education majors are not taught this model in their education classes at the university level. This is probably why so often we have ELL's failing in the school system. If these teachers were given some knowledge about this model it would take some stress off of them as well as the ELL student. In my opinion, the administrators of the school should take it upon themselves to make sure their teachers are qualified to do this. A simple course or workshop could go a long way to help the ELL students that aren't in bilingual education classrooms.

The quote "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" was stated in chapter 2 of the article, and it made me think. If we as teachers don't take action and work with our ELL students that are continuously in our classrooms, they will keep falling further and further behind while the native speakers are progressing far ahead of them. This then turns into a downward spiral of scoring poorly on standardized testing and even eventually dropping out of school. Something so simple as using the SIOP model to reinforce concepts, use repetition, and even visual aids could make such a difference in the long run for our students.