Angelika Riano trains ESOL teachers about the SIOP system in a session at the Hamilton County School system’s central office Tuesday morning. The session focused on comprehensible input from teachers who work with students to whom English is a second language.Some Hamilton County teachers recently got the chance to experience a class through the ears of a foreign student.
Anjelika Riano, English for Speakers of Other Languages coach for the Hamilton County Department of Education, taught a lesson about the different parts of a plant. She spoke entirely in Russian.
By the end of the lesson, the teachers were able to identify and name each part of the plant with labels in Russian.
The point, Riano said, was to show the ESOL teachers the effectiveness of the teaching method known as Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP.
“It proves to the teachers that when you use a universal strategy, you can teach any child,” she said. “It makes them better professionals.”