Research points to many factors that contribute to the achievement gap between white and minority students however; one important issue that is often overlooked is the academic language status of the student. Knowing that lack of familiarity and proficiency in academic English severely limits an individual’s chances at academic success (Mace- Matluck, Alexander-Kasparik, & Queen, 1998), purposefully teaching the skills associated with academic English proficiency is of the utmost importance. While the use of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) has shown to positively impact the academic English language proficiency levels of English language learners, little research exists as to its impact on the proficiency levels of urban students who are not fully proficient in academic English.
Employing an action research methodology, this study examined the journey experienced by a teacher and her students when the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) was implemented into an urban classroom of academic English language learners (AELL). The main findings of this qualitative study are: 1) The implementation
of the SIOP model in any classroom should be accompanied by thorough training and on- going support; 2) The SIOP model has a positive effect on student interactions in the classroom; 3) For the implementation of the SIOP model to be successful issues of ‘control’ must be addressed; 4) There was a positive impact of the SIOP model on the academic language skills of students
