One of a number of tried and tested technique for teaching work that students find hard to learn found in teaching tricks and tips
Enabling scaffolding over time
Often schemes of work hinder scaffolding over time, as topics are only taught in a blocked manner - for example a week on drawing algebra graphs.
With timely practice teachers it is easier to have schemes of work where topics are revisited several times a year, and on each visit a little more learning is added.
The way topics are split up into strands enables teachers to use mastery learning by holding back from teaching new harder work before pre-requisite skills are fully mastered.
Each strand within a topic adds only a very small chunk of new learning, so having mastered the first strand, only a little extra new leaning is required to learn the next.
Below are some topic samples which illustrate this principle.
| add NC | |
|---|---|
| strand 1 : single + single | Riley got given 9 Valentine's day cards at school. He received 8 Valentine's day cards in the post. How many Valentine's day cards did Riley receive altogether? |
strand2: single + double (not teen) - no carry | Alexander is baking. He uses 5 strawberries to decorate a cake and 64 strawberries to make strawberry jam. How many strawberries does Alexander use altogether? |
strand3: single + teen - no carry | Lily has 13 hair bands at home. She buys a packet of 2 hair bands. How many hair bands does Lily have altogether now? |
strand4: double + double - no carry | Karolina already has 62 stickers. She gets given 24 stickers and sticks them on a wall. How many stickers does Karolina have altogether? |
strand5: single + teen/double - UNITS carry | There are 37 passengers on a bus. At the next stop 5 passengers get on the bus, and no one gets o the bus. How many passengers on the bus now? |
strand 6: teen/double + teen/double - UNITS carry | There are 54 students already in the bus queue. 29 students arrive to join the bus queue. How many students are there in the queue now? |
strand 7: teen/double + teen/double - TENS carry | Caz already has 85 soft toys. She gets given 23 soft toys by her sister. How many soft toys does Caz have altogether? |
strand 8: teen/double + teen/double - TENS and UNITS carry | There are 89 passengers sitting in a train. There are 36 passengers standing in the train. How many passengers in the train? |
| percent NC | |
|---|---|
strand 1: 50% of ONLY even digits | (a) Work out 50% of £ 840 (b) Work out 50% of £ 46 (c) Work out 50% of £ 0.64 |
strand 2: 50% of includes odd digits | (a) Work out 50% of £ 87 (b) Work out 50% of £ 520 (c) Work out 50% of £ 15.60 |
strand 3: 10% of | (a) Work out 10% of £ 54 200 (b) Work out 10% of £ 18 (c) Work out 10% of £ 17.40 (d) Work out 10% of £ 234 |
strand 4: 50% or 10% ÷ by 2 or 10 or 10% x by 2 1% or 5% or 25% or 20% | (a) Work out 1% of £ 34 (b) Work out 5% of £ 35 (c) Work out 20% of £ 35 (d) Work out 25% of £ 34 |
strand 5: adding two % from strand 1 - 4 together | (a) Work out 75% of £ 160 (b) Work out 30% of £ 4200 (c) Work out 15% of £ 82.00 |
strand6: 50% or 10% ÷ by 2 or 10 or 10% x by 2 or 10 more than once | (a) Work out 40% of £ 520 (b) Work out 80% of £ 520 (c) Work out 2% of £ 520 (d) Work out 2.5% of £ 520 |
strand 7: % of word problems with calculations from strand 1 to 6 | The headteacher asks 240 students Year 9 students about their GCSE options. 20% of the students chose to study Chinese. Calculate how many students chose to study Chinese. |
strand 8: % increase or decrease word problems with calculations from strand 1 to 6 | (a) Izzy earns £18 000 per year. She will have a pay rise of 2.5% next year. How much will her new salary be? (b) A fridge-freezer costs £260 Hettie gets 5% off the price of the fridge-freezer. Work out how much she has to pay for the fridge-freezer. |
Notice in each case the first strand is one which a high proportion of year 6 students can do.
More examples can be found in the sample strands for teachers within learning resources for each topic
Scaffolding: definition
Based on the work of Hogan and Presley, educational strategist Verna Leigh Lange stated in her 2002 article on Instructional Scaffolding
that there are two major steps involved in the process:
(1) “development of instructional plans to lead the students from what they already know to a deep understanding of new material,” and
(2) “execution of the plans, wherein the instructor provides support to the students at every step of the learning process.”
Lange, V. L. (2002). Instructional scaffolding. Retrieved on September 25, 2007 from http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~group4/Cano/Cano%20Paper.doc
Scaffolding: research
Using Scaffolded Instruction To Optimize Learning, Larkin, Martha 2002
When students are learning new or difficult tasks, they are given more assistance.
As they begin to demonstrate task mastery, the assistance or support is decreased gradually in order to
shift the responsibility for learning from the teacher to the students.
Thus, as the students assume more responsibility for their learning, the teacher provides less support.
Hogan and Pressley (1997) summarized the literature to identify eight essential elements of scaffolded instruction that teachers can use as general guidelines.
Note that these elements do not have to occur in the sequence listed.
- Pre-engagement with the student and the curriculum - The teacher considers curriculum goals and the students' needs to select appropriate tasks.
- Establish a shared goal - The students may become more motivated and invested in the learning process when the teacher works with each student to plan instructional goals.
- Actively diagnose student needs and understandings - The teacher must be knowledgeable of content and sensitive to the students (e.g., aware of the students' background knowledge and misconceptions) to determine if they are making progress.
- Provide tailored assistance - This may include cueing or prompting, questioning, modeling, telling, or discussing. The teacher uses these as needed and adjusts them to meet the students' needs.
- Maintain pursuit of the goal - The teacher can ask questions and request clarification as well as offer praise and encouragement to help students remain focused on their goals.
- Give feedback - To help students learn to monitor their own progress, the teacher can summarize current progress and explicitly note behaviors that contributed to each student's success.
- Control for frustration and risk - The teacher can create an environment in which the students feel free to take risks with learning by encouraging them to try alternatives.
- Assist internalization, independence, and generalization to other contexts - This means that the teacher helps the students to be less dependent on the teacher's extrinsic signals to begin or complete a task and also provides the opportunity to practice the task in a variety of contexts.
Hogan, K., & Pressley, M. (Eds.). (1997). Scaffolding student learning: Instructional approaches and issues. Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books.
Larkin (2001) interviewed and observed teachers who scaffolded instruction to help their students to become more independent learners. She found that these teachers regularly incorporated several of the eight essential elements of scaffolding into instruction. Other guidelines for effective scaffolding that these teachers shared included the following:
- Begin with what the students can do
Students need to be aware of their strengths and to feel good about tasks they can do with little or no assistance. - Help students achieve success quickly
Although students need challenging work in order to learn, frustration and a "cycle of failure" may set in quickly if students do not experience frequent success. - Help students to "be" like everyone else
Students want to be similar to and accepted by their peers. If given the opportunity and support, some students may work harder at tasks in order to appear more like their peers. - Know when it is time to stop -
Practicing is important to help students remember and apply their knowledge, but too much may impede the learning.
"Less is more" may be the rule when students have demonstrated that they can perform the task. - Help students to be independent when they have command of the activity
Teachers need to watch for clues from their students that show when and how much teacher assistance is needed.
Scaffolding should be removed gradually as students begin to demonstrate mastery and
then no longer provided when students can perform the task independently.
Title: Using Scaffolded Instruction To Optimize Learning. Larkin, Martha 2002 ERIC Digest. Note: Digest number E639.
http://www.vtaide.com/png/ERIC/Scaffolding.htm
The plan for all the other pages in this series is to build up examples as above and include links to "teaching Higher work to Foundation students" videos and more easy on the eye student "remind-me" videos. However for scaffolding this would cover all topics so we direct teachers to see the topicSample within learning resources for each topic.