As we continue with our learning recovery plan, school teams have been implementing interventions and multi-tiered systems of support. Today's blog has resources with multiple strategies to support scaffolding of instruction.
The New Teacher Project (TNTP) has a website with several resources for teachers and leaders. The page below has several strategies to support instruction during learning recovery. They identify 4 guiding practices that align with the goals in our learning recovery plan.
Scaffolding Practices
Keep equity and rigorous content at the forefront of all decisions on what and how to teach students who are behind grade level.
Set aside time, both when initially creating unit/lesson plans and on an ongoing basis, to plan when and how you’ll incorporate specific scaffolds to support students.
Proactively plan scaffolding in each lesson according to the learning objective, target standard(s), and your students’ needs. Regularly revisit the scaffolds you’ve planned to gauge whether they are meeting students’ needs and adapt your plans as needed.
If using a curriculum that includes scaffolds, evaluate their appropriateness for your content and population of students and adapt as needed.
Co-plan with other staff members who work with your students (such as intervention specialists) to ensure students consistently receive appropriate scaffolds that support them in accessing grade-level content.
When possible, build time in your unit plans for regular progress checks to remediate specific content as needed (versus doing a broader review of multiple standards on a less regular basis).
Tailor scaffolds to the specific content you’re teaching, the demands of grade-level standards, and the needs of your students.
Regularly assess where your students are currently performing to understand their academic progress and identify the most effective scaffolds to address their evolving needs.
When students need more support, provide repeated and varied opportunities to engage with grade-level content (for example, having students read the same text multiple times with different purposes and supports). When students need less support, resist the urge to over-scaffold; use scaffolds only when necessary and only for the students who need them.
For groups of students with different needs, consider how best to address them with targeted scaffolds or small-group instruction.
If working with the same group of students over an extended period of time, gradually decrease the frequency or level of scaffolding over time to promote students’ increasing independence.
Continuously build your expertise in scaffolding best practices.
Considering the population of students you work with and the content you teach, seek out corresponding development opportunities and resources about the most effective support strategies.
If you are a content area teacher (for example, science or social studies), familiarize yourself with literacy scaffolding best practices.
Scaffolding Strategies
Below are a few examples of some scaffolding strategies along with a link to access more ideas.
Literacy
- Support vocabulary
- Use deliberate annotation
- Use questions as planned scaffolds
- Allow time for reflection and discussion
- Interdependence of oral language, disciplinary writing, and text engagement
- Sustained language and content support
- Learner awareness (Metacognitive strategies)
- Leveraging students' assets
- Formative assessments
Math
- Understand
- Study the focus standards for upcoming instruction
- Identify critical prerequisite skills and understand students need to access grade level content
- Diagnose
- Determine student understanding of prerequisites based on diagnostic or formative data
- Consider if gaps exist for the whole class or a small group
- Take action
- Whole class needs: plan to build needed scaffolds into upcoming lessons. If needed, adjust pacing to add in additional lessons.
- Small group needs: plan differentiated instruction or coordinate to address gaps within intervention periods
- Use formative data to gauge student understanding and inform pacing
- Provide 'just in time' support within each unit during intervention
- Prioritize the most essential prerequisite skills and understanding for the upcoming content
- Trace the learning progressions, diagnose, and go back just enough to provide access to grade-level material
- Provide a new experience for students to re-engage when appropriate
- Connect learning experiences in intervention and core instruction
- Consider the aspect of rigor called for in the standards when designing and choosing tasks, activities, or learning experiences
Source: The New Teacher Project
