What is Scaffolding?
Instructional scaffolding is a process that is designed to support the learning process which is tailored to the needs of students in order to achieve the learning outcomes.
Scaffolding Benefits:
- provides clear directions
- clarifies purpose
- keeps students on task
- points students to worthy sources
- reduces uncertainty, surprise, and disappointment
- helps students to organize
- breaks the work down into manageable pieces
- provides a structure for completing the project
Ways to Use Scaffolds in an Instructional Setting:
- Advanced Organizers: Use Venn Diagrams, flow charts, organizational charts, etc., to introduce a new concept or task in order to help the students learn about the topic.
- Cue Cards: Use prepared cue cards containing vocabulary words, formulas or concepts to assist students in the discussion about a certain topic.
- Concept and mind maps: Use partially or completed maps or student-created maps made based on their prior knowledge, to show relationships.
- Examples: Use samples, specimens, illustrations, problems, or real objects to represent something about the topic.
- Explanations: Use additional written instruction or verbal explanation to move students on the task or in their thinking.
- Handouts: Provide handouts containing task- and content-related information with less detail and room for students’ note-taking.
- Hints: Provide suggestions or clues to move students along the lesson like, “find the subject of the verb”, “add water first and then the acid”, etc.
- Prompts: Use physical or verbal cues to recall prior or assumed knowledge.
- Question Cards: Use prepared question cards containing content- and task-specific questions regarding a particular topic.
- Question Stems: Provide students with incomplete sentences to be completed by them. As much as possible, use question stems containing “what if” questions.
- Stories: Use stories that connect the abstract and complex material to situations that are more familiar with the students.
- Visual Scaffolds: Use pointing, representational gestures, diagrams, etc. to highlight visual information.
