With so much for students to gain, how do we as educators effectively scaffold and question our students so that they are successfully answering, thinking and learning at higher levels?
This article gives many examples from across the curriculum of how scaffolding can and should be a part of our daily classroom practice.
Scaffolds can be used:
- Presenting a New Cognitive Strategy
- Regulating Difficulty During Guided Practice
- Varying the Context for Practice
- Providing Feedback
- Increasing Student Responsibility
- Providing Independent Practice
Please take time to post your 5 takeaways from the article, comment on my posts and one from a peer. (3 total posts).
pg. 26 “Before using scaffolds, it is important to determine whether students have sufficient background ability to learn a new cognitive strategy.”
ReplyDeletep.27 “Regulate difficulty during guided practice.”
p.26 “...began with simpler exercises and then gradually increased the difficulty of the task.”
p. 30: “Another way to regulate the difficulty of learning a new cognitive strategy is to anticipate and discuss potential student errors.” (I assume the discussion is with other teachers.)
In general I try to do most of the things recommended in this article. I am frequently handicapped in my efforts to bring the students up to the higher levels of thinking by the student’s lack of basic background knowledge and skills.
I too have the same struggles of student's lack of basic background knowledge, not because they haven't been taught previously, but because they haven't retained what they learned.
DeleteIn reply to Cameron's post, I have found that questioning with visuals produce better results.
DeleteIn reply to Susan and Stacy, for my son the visual is the memory key but I feel more repetition in lower grade is necessary.
I also have the problem of lack of knowledge because they haven't ever looked at education from the teacher view point and it is sometimes difficult to get them to that side because they are the students.
Deletepage 33: In conclusion, scaffolding is summarized as being a middle level between “the specificity of behavior objectives that seemed overly demanding to some, and the lack of instruction that man criticized in discovery learning settings.” I agree with the criticism of discovery learning settings - I have always been uneasy with the idea of having students learn something without instruction, especially in a math setting, because if they get it stuck in their head and they’ve learned something the wrong day, it takes a lot of time to undo that damage.
ReplyDeleteIn the different case studies mentioned with different strategies for scaffolding, it’s interesting that most of the strategies mentioned say something about eventually the teacher takes these strategies away when the students are more accustomed to “expert thinking.” I’ve heard this on other forms of research too, but in my teaching experience, it seems I never need to not scaffold.
page 30: “Another way to regulate the difficulty of learning a new cognitive strategy is to anticipate and discuss potential student errors.” In the past I did this quite frequently but the Dana center research suggests not to waste time on this - only be interested in the right answer. My thought on this is, yes as a teacher anticipate the student errors, but no on discussing it a lesson setting.
There are several strategies that I already use, but a couple I haven’t used in a long time so it was insightful to me think maybe I should try them again.
Cameron in response to your post as well as my reply to what I said on Linderman's post, I'd be interesting in knowing if any research has been conclusive in showing how scaffolding affects retention of academic material.
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ReplyDeleteCheck out this link......http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~hhartman/c3clsc.html
ReplyDeleteI can see where cooperative learning would be very helpful in my classroom. There are several examples that students can give each other that I have no idea about (such as how something could be related to a video game). In the computer programming class, being able to have them talk to each other and relate an item to a game that they are all familiar with is much more practical than me trying to share a topic I know a lot about that they may have never heard of...due to our generational gap.
Deletepg 29 When presenting several step. make sure students practice before moving on. This keeps them involved though to learning process
DeletePg. 30 dialogue instruction great example
Pg 32 the important of students mastering skill before moving on
pg 26 make sure students have the background knowledge
Definitely going to Google this article! Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteLet's see. I am entering this for the fourth time. Maybe I can get the site to accept it this time. :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite piece of the scaffolding article was on page 28 "Thinking aloud by the teacher and more capable students provided novice learners with a way to observe "expert thinking" usually hidden from the student"
Other "take away's from the article for me were:
p. 26 "Scaffolds are forms of support provided by the teacher for another student to help students bridge the gap between their current abilities and the intended goal"
p. 27 I really liked the "How to Teach Higher-Order Cognitive Strategies" list that was provided. The breakdown that was given under each heading was helpful.
p. 29 the "Planning Cues Used for Opinion Essays" were helpful and unique. They are a great way to start out essays and get the students thinking.
p. 31 My second favorite piece was on this page. "Feedback is important in teaching cognitive strategies as it is for all forms of learning."
Marcus Bustos
ReplyDeleteThis being my first year teaching, and only being removed from the university environment for about a year and a half, sometimes it's difficult to keep in mind that our students are not yet at a level where they can be expected to retrieve information and explore subject matter as would be appropriate for a much older student. So, I appreciated the use of "concrete prompts." Nobody is born riding a bike. We use training wheels. Templates, guides to illustrate successful thought processes are necessary for beginners. I also like the practice of "thinking aloud" in order to model this.
Personally, I like to implement the practice of independent study because I want my students to become more responsible and feel like their education is their own. However, I do need to work on more concrete prompts and more constructive feedback so they know how to continue on when they have completed a task.
I also need to use concrete prompt and helping students learn how to study. Students need to build good study habits. With good study habits they can learn to be more responsible for their time.
DeleteCheryl Long November 13,2014
ReplyDeletepg. 26 Before using scaffolds, it is important to determine whether students have sufficient background ability to learn the new cognitive strategy.
pg. 28 In order to help the learner, many teacher began with simpler exercises and then gradually increased the difficulty of the task. This allowed the learner to begin participating very early in the process.
pg. 30 When teaching cognitive strategies, the teachers guided students by providing hints, reminders of the concrete prompts, reminders of what was overlooked, and suggestions on how something could be improved.
pg, 32 The extensive practice, and practice with a variety of material-alone, in groups, or in pairs- also decontextualizes the learning. That is, the strategies become free of their original "bindings" and can now be applied, easily and unconsciously, to various situations.
I use many of these strategies and I like the mental image that "scaffolding" presents of the knowledge and confidence students acquire.
BeaAnn Brown
ReplyDeletepg. 26 "Scaffolds are forms of support provided by the teacher (or other students) to help students bridge the between their current abilities and the intended goal."
pg. 29 Teachers provided hints, prompts, suggestions, and feedback when students encountered difficulty in their attempts to complete part of a task.
pg. 30 Understanding is more likely to occur when a students I required to explain, elaborate, or defend his or her position to others:
pg. 31 Feedback is important in teaching cognitive strategies as it is for all form of learning.
pg. 32 The goal of independent practice is to develop unitization of the strategy, that is, the blending of elements of the strategy into a single, unified whole.
In the past we were told to work smarter not harder. This process puts the thinking on the students and guides them to answer the questions instead of the teacher answering his or her own questions.
Cameron I think that this is a training process that we as teachers and our students are going to have to learn and practice. As educators we have to often let the students get away with the blank stares and short one or two word answers. This is going to be a learning process for everyone. I think that the whole idea of "think time" is really going to come into play here.
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