January 3

SIOP:

"Planning must produce lessons that enable students to make connections between their own knowledge and experiences and the new information being taught" (Rumehart, 1994).

I saw the importance of making connections for students as I worked on my SIOP lesson. I am in the Social Studies group and we are planning a lesson on the Civil Rights Movement. Teaching Social Studies to ELL students is not just challenging because of the language. This subject can also be difficult because these students have not been drilled with American history since they were in elementary school. They do not have the language skills or the background knowledge to understand the material. In a Social Studies context, a teacher's ability to make connections between past experiences and new information is absolutely vital. For example, making the connection between a refugee student's experience with civil war in their country and the battle for civil rights in the United States would be very beneficial for a student who lacks any foundational knowledge on the Civil Rights Movement. This reading helped me to understand the importance of taking the time to learn a student's background so that you can assist them in understanding new information.