Scaffolding Children’s Learning Differentiate Levels of Support Arizona Department of Education Early Childhood Education

Lev Vygotsky Social Development Theory: Vygotsky’s theory promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. The Role of the teacher is of a collaborator with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Learning therefore becomes a reciprocal experience for the students and teacher.

Zone of Proximal Development A way to explain how children can perform at a higher level when assisted by a more experienced learner

Goal of Scaffolding Teach responsively by improving the level of support necessary for each child in the classroom

Individually Appropriate Supports The way you choose to scaffold learning must be responsive to an individual child’s culture, language, ability and demographic characteristics & Built on relationships!!! Some children will need minimal facilitation of their learning using your natural strategies such as environment and what you teach in whole group, but others will benefit form more intensive supports.

Matching the Level of Support You should expect to have to use different kinds of strategies to produce benefits for students Observation and assessment Pinpointing ways children are successful can provide information for scaffolding decisions

Guiding Questions in making scaffolding decisions What conditions seem to help this child learn best? Can you describe the strategies the child tries? How does the child solve problems? During what kinds of activities is the child most successful? Is the child most successful learning alone or with others? What kind of teacher assistance seems to work best?

Deliberate & Planned Support Strategies Prompts Graphic Information and Organizers Corrective feedback Individualized reinforcement Mediated Problem Solving Modeling learning Activate prior learning Help children identify cues Ask guiding questions/open-ended Think aloud Utilize the environment Task analysis Assistive Technology

Prompts Cue ~ a hint that a child should respond in a certain way Physical or manual prompt Verbal prompt Visual prompt Gestural prompt

Practice Practice helps children gain proficiency and learn to apply strategies efficiently as they acquire concepts and skills

Corrective feedback

Individualized reinforcement

Modeling learning

Identify cue

Asking guided questions/open ended

Visual prompt

Example of visual prompt Activity

Is the scaffolding working? Knowing in action Self-Reflection of strategies Dialoguing with others Meeting time

Thank you!