Scaffolding: Ensuring Success for All Students
Toni Enloe
Jun 27, 2011
How can the use of scaffolding support student achievement?
If you’ve never had the experience of watching a t-ball game, it’s a Saturday morning well spent. Coaches know the secret of scaffolding and t-ball is one of the best examples out there. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, it is the foundation of baseball and softball. With patient coaching and support, children learn how to hit a ball, catch, throw and eventually run bases (in the correct order). They start with very few rules because the focus is on developing confidence through the mastery of those skills. As children become more proficient with the basics, they move on to the coach’s pitch which offers a new challenge. The support structures that were put into place at the beginning are slowly removed as children become more confident in their ability to play the sport. Something remarkable happens, they are no longer satisfied with just being able to hit a ball off of a tee but eagerly seek out new challenges.
What lessons can be learned from t-ball?
First, children are given the support they need to be successful. This in turn builds their confidence to try more difficult and challenging tasks. Next, the scaffolds are temporary in that they don’t remain after the children have mastered the skills. Last, they are well planned and slowly removed, seeking that delicate balance between challenge and continued support.
Why Scaffold?
The majority of students must learn grade level material and take grade level state tests. The reality is that often times students come to our classes one or more grade levels behind. The root causes may vary. Some students have a history of low achievement and have been met with so much failure that the “job” of doing school work can seem insurmountable. Others may be children of poverty with large vocabulary deficits. In some cases, these students are spending so much time in remediation that they are never exposed to grade level curriculum. How can we expect them to do well if they have never seen the material? How do we support those students so that they are ready to meet the challenge? Scaffolding can help fill some of the gaps for those students.
How Do You Scaffold Grade Level Learning?
As stated in our Scaffolding book, start with where you want them to be (the grade level standard) and make it learnable. So, how can we make the standards learnable? In Acquisition Lesson training you learned about the value of chunking material for students and checking for understanding using Assessment Prompts. Teachers can scaffold learning for students by taking what MUST be mastered and breaking it into smaller more “learnable” chunks. Acceleration through previewing key vocabulary and student learning maps can help give students a jump start. Small group instruction, flexible groups and learning stations can offer avenues for scaffolding.
What Can You Scaffold?
• Graphic organizers – give students a partially completed organizer
• How students access grade level material
• Teaching of key vocabulary
• Content
• Assignments through the use of differentiation
The important thing to remember about scaffolding is that struggling students need it in order to be successful learners because it provides support, it is temporary, and it is well planned. But the most important thing to remember about scaffolding is that struggling students need it in order to be successful learners.
For more information about Scaffolding, Differentiation and Flexible Groups check out these LEARNING-FOCUSED Solutions:
Catching Kids Up with Acceleration
Scaffolding Grade Level Learning
Differentiated Assignments
WHAT MOVE YOU SERIES:
How to Get the Most From Scaffolding for Grade Level Learning
How to Get the Most From Differentiated Assignments
How do you ensure that struggling students learn grade level material?
