GROVE CITY, Ohio -- English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers are using an innovative program that stresses vocabulary while instructing students in the required subjects.
Six years ago, South-Western City Schools ESL Coordinator Rene Phillips convinced district leaders to adopt the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, or SIOP, to help foreign-born students
overcome language barriers in the classroom.
"What used to be just content teaching from the regular teachers and ESL language from our ESL has become more integrated now," said Phillips of the SIOP teaching method.
Nearly 2,500 students in South-Western City Schools speak 56 different languages and dialects.
Math and science teacher Nicole Myers must see to it that her Holt Crossing Intermediate 5th grade students are proficient in English as well as those subjects.
SIOP requires Myers to not only instruct them how to do fractions, but also to understand what each and every word means.
Her star pupil this school year is Nelson, who emigrated to America from El Salvador.
"After working with him on his confidence and building that vocabulary he now participates and is comfortable and confident in the classroom," explains Myer.
Veteran teacher Andrea Gray once taught in a regular classroom. She now dedicates her time helping the students she often watched fall behind.
"Over the nine years that I've been in the South-Western City School District, I've really seen the changes with more and more ESL students coming into our district. And honestly I wasn't sure how to handle that," remembers Gray.
Once the students pass an English proficiency test they reintegrated back into a regular classroom. Setting up the classes cost the district no additional funds for positions and supplies.
Holt Crossing Intermediate School received an excellent rating from the Ohio Department of Education in 2009. It's proof to SIP teachers that the program is working.
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