After three school years filled with challenges, long hours, and unpredictability, teacher burnout has been common. So, it was particularly heartening that our 2022 SIOP National Conference was filled with participants who were enthusiastic, engaged, and generous in sharing their own experiences and expertise. I asked Dr. Katie Toppel, who recently joined our SIOP author team, to provide her perspective on the conference. I hope you’ll be able to use some of the ideas she shares as a new school year begins.
Attending professional conferences leaves me feeling reenergized, brimming with new ideas to put into practice and share with colleagues. This year, in particular, I was really in need of that spark. There is something so special about coming together with other passionate educators and learning with one another. I always love the opportunity to decide what sessions I want to attend because I get to choose areas for professional learning that match my personal interests and curiosities, my specific role, and the professional goals I’ve set for myself. Sometimes it’s challenging to choose among all of the fantastic offerings! The 2022 SIOP National Conference once again exceeded all of my expectations. Educators from across the globe came together in virtual community, filled with excitement, outstanding ideas for implementing SIOP, and an openness to learn from one another. Even though it would have been wonderful to be together in person, the virtual conference experience includes the added benefit of being able to view recorded sessions afterwards. What a wonderful opportunity to listen to more, listen again, and process all the information!
When I reflect on the sessions I attended, the keynotes, and all the interaction on Twitter and the Whova app, I am so thankful to be part of the SIOP community. The SIOP National Conference is a great learning experience for both new and established SIOP educators. What is truly amazing is the wide variety of ways presenters use SIOP as a foundation for navigating many different aspects of instruction such as technology integration, SEL, and co-teaching. On behalf of the SIOP author team, I want to extend a sincere thank you to all of the presenters who took the initiative and time to share their ideas and expertise with our community. This year’s conference theme says it perfectly—we are Better Together!
I was excited when Jana asked me to write a blog post about the conference because writing is a helpful way to reflect and process new learning. I created a graphic for each session I attended to highlight key points, and I am excited to revisit those to share with you!
The graphic below shows some of the memorable takeaways from a wonderful session on differentiation by Yvonne Williams. I really loved the ABC acronym Yvonne used (Activity Before Concept), emphasizing how beneficial it is to engage students in activities that set a foundation for learning prior to introducing new content concepts. Shared experiences support SIOP’s Building Background component by providing opportunities for students to engage with activities that intentionally contribute to their understanding of more complex concepts. I was reminded of the Language Experience Approach and how meaningful it is when students can communicate ideas based on their own lived experiences. It’s particularly fun when those experiences are shared within the classroom community. Yvonne included a graphic (created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) with bicycles to contrast equity and equality. She made the point that we don’t need to change the mode of transportation (the mode of lesson delivery), but to make adjustments based on students’ needs. She identified many strategies, supports, and scaffolds that support educators in differentiating content for multilingual learners that align with SIOP’s Comprehensible Input, Practice & Application, Interaction and Lesson Delivery components.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has become a priority in classrooms as a result of the pandemic and the role it plays in creating caring, just, inclusive, and equitable learning environments in which students can thrive emotionally and academically. Andrea Rients’ session on SIOP and SEL showcased many ways educators can connect to and leverage multilingual learners’ assets, such as their cultural funds of knowledge or language brokering skills, in SEL lessons. SIOP Feature 7, Concepts linked to students’ backgrounds, is an integral part of Building Background as well as designing culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. Social Emotional Learning centers students’ feelings, stories, and experiences, so there is a natural connection to designing lessons that support students to accurately communicate what they are thinking and feeling as well as empathetically listen to their peers to gain understanding of multiple perspectives. Using SIOP as a framework for SEL lessons is a powerful way to ensure that multilingual learners’ have a voice and feel connected as valued members of their school and classroom communities.
One of the presenters I learned a lot from was Susan Patterson in her session on text engineering. SIOP Feature 5, Adaptation of content, is necessary to ensure students at different levels of language proficiency can access and understand content. One way to adapt content is through adapting texts, or text engineering. Susan emphasized the importance of amplifying, rather than simplifying, texts through the strategic use of visuals, audio, and additional text such as synonyms, translations, subheadings, or simple summaries. The goal of engineering text is not to alter a text so that it is easier to read because it is devoid of challenging content, rather to enhance a text so that it retains the same content with features that make it more comprehensible. Susan also shared a resource called The Noun Project, where she finds photos and icons to use in engineered texts. In the past I worried that adapting texts was too challenging and time consuming, so I really appreciated Susan’s session which gave some clear, actionable ideas for text engineering.
Another session that left me feeling really excited was Shadia Salem’s presentation on technology tools that promote language development and student engagement. Technology is everywhere and we need to be selective about the tools we choose with a specific lens on how well they promote language development. Shadia shared examples of multimodal tech tools that engage all of the language domains. She talked about the value of tech tools that empower students by providing opportunities to express and represent knowledge uniquely through various options that incorporate reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I was incredibly impressed with the videos she showed of young students using lots of content vocabulary as they engaged in assignments and explained their thinking about the work. One of the new ideas I got from Shadia’s session was using Padlet to have students share about books they are reading or have read. I love the idea of students posting selfies with their books along with written or audio content to describe the books and encourage others to read them. Shadia’s session was a great reminder to carefully choose tools that give students access to technology that supports SIOP Feature 21, Application of content and knowledge in new ways, and SIOP Feature 22, Integration of all language skills.
Finally, I can’t leave out the fabulous keynote presentation by Kelly Yang, author of the Front Deskseries. Another benefit to the virtual conference is that I was able to enjoy Kelly’s session alongside my two elementary-aged daughters who love her books. Kelly shared about her experiences as an immigrant student who came to the United States at age six, not knowing a single word of English and who barely spoke in her first-grade classroom. Her dream was to be an author, but she questioned if that could be a reality because none of the authors of books she read looked like her. Kelly’s session contained so many important messages about the value of representation and making sure that all students see themselves, their language, their families, their cultures, and many other facets of their identities in the books, lessons, and curriculum that they encounter in school.
These are just a few highlights from three wonderful days of learning. I am so appreciative of the excitement and dedication within our SIOP community because sharing our ideas, strategies, and techniques helps us all continue improving our instructional practices for the benefit of multilingual learners (like Kelly!) who have big dreams and deserve to achieve them.