E18 - Merging Content and Language: SIOP and Structured Literacy in Multilingual Classrooms
Dr. Katie Toppel has 20 years of experience in education across preschool through university settings. She currently serves as a K–5 English language development specialist in Oregon, supporting multilingual learners through co-planning, co-teaching, and small group instruction. She is a member of the SIOP author team and co-authored the sixth edition of Making Content Comprehensible for Multilingual Learners. Her background includes classroom teaching in kindergarten and first grade, work at an international school in Germany, and teaching ESOL endorsement courses at Portland State University. She holds a master’s degree in special education and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction with a focus on culturally responsive teaching, and she presents nationally and internationally.
This episode explores the importance of integrating literacy and language instruction to effectively support multilingual learners. Dr. Toppel highlights the limitations of teaching reading and language in isolation and emphasizes the importance of collaboration, structured routines, and meaningful context. The conversation centers on how instructional practices like co-teaching, sentence patterning, and strategic vocabulary development can align the science of reading with language acquisition.
Key Takeaways:
- Multilingual learners benefit from instruction built around content and language objectives together. SIOP offers educators a structured framework for doing so.
- Sentence patterning charts provide structured opportunities to build syntax and meaning. They help students understand how words function together in sentences.
- Collaboration between classroom teachers and language specialists strengthens instruction.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Welcome to Literacy Across Languages!
(01:40) Meet Dr. Katie Toppel
(09:13) The Value of Integrated Language and Literacy Instruction
(13:53) The SIOP Approach to Merging Language and Content
(20:10) Sentence Pattern Charts for Sentence-Level Work
(25:39) Explicit Teaching of Grammatical Features
(28:50) The Power of Integrated Instruction for Multilingual Learners
(34:05) Making Content Comprehensible for All Learners
(35:17) Professional Learning for Educators of Multilingual Students
(40:18) The Privilege of Being an ELD Educator
(42:12) Takeaways for Teaching
Episode Resources:
- Read Making Content Comprehensible for Multilingual Learners, or if you work with older students, try Making Content Comprehensible for Secondary Multilingual Learners: The SIOP Model .
- Check out DIY PD by Dr. Toppel, Tan Hyunh, and Dr. Carol Salva for ways to continue your professional learning journey.
- Watch this video with Dr. Toppel to learn more about using sentence patterning charts.
Stay Connected:
- Visit us at literacyacrosslanguages.com.
- Email us with questions or episode suggestions at literacyacrosslanguages@gmail.com.
- Follow Mary and Katherine on LinkedIn.
- Like, subscribe, and share this episode with fellow educators, or share a review to help others find us!
Keywords: multilingual learners, language development, literacy instruction, science of reading, SIOP model, co-teaching, collaboration, oral language, vocabulary development, comprehension, decoding, phonemic awareness, structured literacy, sentence patterning, syntax instruction, grammar in context, content and language integration, professional learning, teacher collaboration, culturally responsive teaching, EL instruction, ELD strategies, scaffolded instruction, comprehensible input, structured output, elementary literacy, language objectives