Scaffolding

In theory, the teacher will model the correct way to complete a given task so that the students will eventually be able to do so in the same way, without teacher assistance. It is most important for teachers to use this theory when first introducing a new subject or task. For example, a teacher will model a Venn Diagram to help students understand how to categorize similarities and differences, so that students can then go and repeat the demonstrated activity and do compare/contrast projects of their own. Identify by five features:
 * Instructional scaffolding-** is a teaching strategy designed to help students build their understanding and knowledge base in a correct and developed fashion, like builders who use scaffolding when constructing or working on a building. This theory was first introduced in the late 1950s by [|Jerome Bruner], a [|cognitive] [|psychologist]. He used the term to describe young children's oral [|language acquisition]
 * **Intentionality**: The task has a clear overall purpose driving any separate activity that may contribute to the whole.
 * **Appropriateness**: Instructional tasks pose problems that can be solved with help but which students could not successfully complete on their own.
 * **Structure**: Modeling and questioning activities are structured around a model of appropriate approaches to the task and lead to a natural sequence of thought and language.
 * **Collaboration:** The teacher’s response to student work recasts and expands upon the students’ efforts without rejecting what they have accomplished on their own. The teacher’s primary role is collaborative rather than evaluative.
 * **Internalization**: External scaffolding for the activity is gradually withdrawn as the patterns are internalized by the students

There are two scaffolding strategies in teaching reading: In the first strategy, when a teacher suspects the child does not have the ideas or words needed for a particular text, he/she may explain some part of the story or contrast a feature presented with something he/she knows the child understands from another reading. Also, the teacher may bring up group conversation to help the children get their thoughts out and then help them to form their thoughts on paper. In this process the teacher is aiding the students so that they will learn to have future independent success. "In the second strategy, the teacher uses what is correct in the student's response but probes or cues the student, so as to suggest good possibilities for active consideration." (found at http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr1scaf.htm)
 * 1) working with new knowledge
 * 2) accepting partially correct responses.

When in the classroom it is suggestd that teachers begin by boosting confidence. Introduce students first to tasks they can perform with little or no assistance. This will improve self-efficacy. Provide enough assistance to allow students to achieve success quickly. This will help lower frustration levels and ensure that students remain motivated to advance to the next step. This will also help guard against students giving up due to repeated failures. Help students “fit in.” Students may actually work harder if they feel as if they resemble their peers. Avoid boredom. Once a skill is learned, don’t overwork it. Look for clues that the learner is mastering the task. Scaffolding should be removed gradually and then removed completely when mastery of the task is demonstrated.

Banaszynski provides another example of instructional scaffolding in his article about a project in which a group of eighth-grade history students in Wisconsin examined the Revolutionary War from two points of view—American and British. He began by guiding his students as they undertook a sequential series of activities in order to thoroughly investigate the opposing reactions to causes of the war. Then students contributed to a class timeline which detailed causes, actions and reactions. Banaszynski describes how work continued: “ After the timeline was completed, the students were arranged in groups, and each group did a critical analysis of primary-source material, focusing on the efforts each side made to avoid the war. This started students thinking about what the issues were and how each side handled them. The next step was to ask a question: Did the colonists have legitimate reasons for going to war against Great Britain? [I] asked each group to choose either the Patriot or Loyalist position and spend a day searching the Internet for primary sources and other materials to support their positions.” The instructor continued scaffolding by interviewing the groups to probe for misconceptions, need for redirection, or re-teaching. Students later compared research and wrote essays that were analyzed and evaluated by fellow students using rubrics; groups then composed essays that included the strongest arguments from the individual works. The project, Banaszynski says, was an enormous success; students began the unit working as individuals reliant upon him for instruction. As work proceeded, the feedback framework was altered so that students were guiding each other and, in turn, themselves. Banaszynski’s role in guiding the research and leading the reporting activities faded as the project continued and requirements became more complicated. As a result, students were able to appreciate their mastery of both materials and skills. ( http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr218.shtml)

A chart that explains scaffolding may be found at: http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Scaffolding