Sheltered Instruction and the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol for Emergent Bilinguals: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Sheltered Instruction (SI), or the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) has been an influential model for content area instruction for Emergent Bilingual (EB) students over the past two decades. As the number of EB students increases exponentially in the United States, it is more important than ever for linguistically diverse students to receive meaningful education outside of their ESL classroom. However, there are numerous points of disagreement, including with effective instructional practices, training for pre-service teachers, issues with the SIOP itself, educational policy regarding EB students and SI, professional development regarding SIOP, and content-area teachers with EB students in their classrooms. This systematic review includes a total of 31 articles retrieved from ERIC, Google Scholar, and JSTOR. It reveals major findings, such as a need for more substantial professional development/training for current service teachers of SIOP classrooms to better prepare them to deliver meaningful instruction to linguistically diverse students.