SIOP Comprehensible input

Posted by MichealH Alexander on August 5th, 2021

Comprehensible Input is the measurement of how easily someone can understand something.  In this component, the SIOP framework asks teachers to consider how comprehensible key aspects of their teaching is to the students they teach.

SIOP Component #3:  Comprehensible Input

If my students can't learn the way that I teach, how can I teach in the way they learn? Caleb Gattegno

This component of SIOP encourages teachers to consciously make the content and the language accessible to the students.  The first of the three features (see below) under this component deal with making sure students understand your speech, the second wants teachers to insure students understand the task, and the final feature pertains to student understanding of the concept being taught.  There it is again:  that content and language connection that SIOP brings.  This K-12 teaching framework encourages teachers to make sure that students can understand the lesson's content and language. SIOP Comprehensible input

A teacher's natural reaction to the importance of making sure students are grasping the main ideas of a discussion most probably will be an emphatic, "No, duh."  However, cultivating comprehension in the classroom takes more skill than merely speaking the same language as the students.  The lesson's focus plays a role: its level of difficulty varies; The students' background influences the comprehensibility; Finally, the way the teacher connects the students to the content and language also has an impact. 

SIOP Strategies

Strategies, the fourth SIOP component, finds itself in the middle of the 8 component framework.  This component concerns itself with learning strategies, higher order thinking strategies, and the strategy of scaffolding students into success.

SIOP Component #4:  Strategies

"Give a person a fish; that person eats today. Teach a person how to fish; they eat for life."

The strategies aspect of this component can be found on a number of levels.  The most obvious is the first of three features which invites educators to actively teach students strategies (E.g. paraphrasing, note-taking).  The second feature focuses on the strategy of scaffolding: one of the most important teaching strategies there is to master.  The third and final feature deals with the strategy of promoting higher order thinking skills in the classroom.  All three of these deal, in one way or another, with a learning or teaching strategy.

SIOP asks teachers to consider things from the teaching & learning perspectives

Coupling learning strategies (predicting, inferring, etc) with the strategy of scaffolding suggests how useful scaffolding can be in promoting learning strategies and higher order thinking skills. 

Teaching students what metacognition (thinking about your thinking) and how to harness its power in a deliberate manner can have a powerful influence on everything from engagement to achievement.  TESOL Trainers can show teachers how to hone metacognitive skills.

​Consciously teaching learning strategies is a way to empower students.  The same can be said for scaffolding students into using their critical thinking skills more effectively.