CHAPTER 4: Scaffolding for skill mastery

In chapter 4 of Rigor by Design, Not Chance, Karin Hess dives into scaffolding. She first and foremost breaks down the misconception that scaffolding and differentiation are the same thing- spoiler alert- they certainly are not! Differentiation is varying class content and assignments, typically offering choice and incorporating different aspects of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) in your instruction. Don’t get me wrong- differentiation is important for developing well-rounded learners. It keeps them engaged and typically utilizes multi-sensory approaches to deliver the same content in various means. However, scaffolding is just as important, if not more so! Here is why:

 

As a rising special educator, scaffolding is my bread and butter! Above is an image that you’ve probably seen before. It illustrates three people trying to watch a baseball game. In the first image, they are all given the exact same resources, but you will notice that they are not physically capable of accessing the same experience despite being given the exact same resource (one box). In the image on the right, you will see that the resources were divvied up among the three people, but nobody seems to be upset about it, hence utilizing the equity versus equality comparison. Despite not being given the exact same resources, they are able to have the same experience, and that is okay. This is scaffolding how I see it in my own mind. I personally think of scaffolding as being a means of providing accommodations to students with learning disabilities and beyond, as it typically presents itself in a student’s IEP. However, the truth is that it does not only apply to students with learning disabilities, and this is where Hess goes on to explain how scaffolding benefits general instruction in the classroom.

 

Hess asks the question, “How can scaffolding help students show what they know by making content more accessible or by supporting the processing of content?” (p. 73). She later backs up her own question by dividing scaffolding into 3 areas of benefit:

Reason 1: To deepen content knowledge and connect to big ideas

 

This ties back to the concept of schemas. When you are trying to deepen content knowledge and connect to big ideas, you must ensure that you are supporting students' executive functioning skills. This is why things such as anchor charts are important. They guide the executive thought process by simply providing prompting questions to students. Then, the students can build deeper thoughts and ideas on a topic while conserving bandwidth to focus on the actual task at hand (Hess, 74-75).  

 

Reason 2: To facilitate executive functioning in the application of skills and processes

 

Facilitating executive functioning skills focuses on thought initiation, working memory, planning and organization, and self-monitoring. Once again, a lot of charts and graphic organizers will be provided (Hess, 76). In my previous post, I discussed a SWBS sentence frame as a schema. This is a method of developing a schema, but a scaffold as well to introduce summarization. The scaffolds can be removed as students graduate into deeper levels of independent thinking.

 

Reason 3: To support language and vocabulary development

 

When you are teaching vocabulary, it can be pretty daunting to ask students to use new words grammatically correct in sentences if they are simply given the dictionary definition, and that’s all. Pre-teaching vocabulary is very important, as well as providing sentence frames for new vocabulary. Illustrations can also be supportive of the teaching of new vocabulary, as well as a variety of exposures to new words in different contexts (Hess, 76-78).

 

In pursuit of a popular article about scaffolding in the classroom, I stumbled upon Edutopia. The article titled 6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students caught my attention as is directly aligned with Karin Hess’s views on scaffolding in the classroom. In particular, author Rebecca Alber places a huge emphasis on the importance of igniting background knowledge, frontloading vocabulary, and providing visual supports. She says, "Graphic organizers are very specific and that they help kids visually represent their ideas, organize information, and grasp concepts such as sequencing and cause-and-effect."

 

My favorite quote by Alber from this article is:

 

“A graphic organizer shouldn’t be The Product but rather a scaffolding tool that helps guide and shape students’ thinking. Some students can dive right into discussing, or writing an essay, or synthesizing several different hypotheses, without using a graphic organizer of some sort, but many of our students benefit from using one with a difficult reading or challenging new information. Think of graphic organizers as training wheels—they’re temporary and meant to be removed.” -Rebecca Alber

 

 

Not only does this completely verbalize my stance on scaffolding, but it directly correlates to Karin Hess’s views as well. When she says, “Think of graphic organizers as training wheels- they're temporary and meant to be removed,” I felt like she read my mind and threw all of my thoughts in regard to scaffolding in 1 sentence, just like that. 

 

Above is a model of scaffolding inferences. Students would be making inferences throughout the whole process, but the cognitive demand increases as they further master the skill. The vocabulary becomes more complex as well as a combination of literary skills.

 

Everyone can relate to scaffolding, and everyone has experienced scaffolding at some point in their life, even outside of the classroom. We will never graduate from receiving scaffolding in order to successfully complete a task by developing executive functioning skills in regard to that task. When getting trained for a new job, you have to do a bunch of paperwork that typically has a written description of the job. Then, when you are getting trained, you probably are shadowing someone at first, who eventually starts to gradually release responsibilities onto you. It can take weeks, but they will slowly remove the supports beneath you to make you an independent worker and confident to tackle tasks on your own.

 

Scaffolding is not a bad thing, but it rather lets you focus on the task in front of you in order to master a set of complex tasks that compose 1 major skill set. It removes educational barriers that may prohibit students from showing what they know. It is not a special education initiative but rather something that can be beneficial to all students in the classroom as they become experts in their studies and grow into independent thinkers. Think about your life post-educationally. Where have you received scaffolds that helped you grow into a master of your skill? Where do you embed scaffolds into your own life to lessen cognitive demands and benefit your bandwidth? I promise you, the more you think about it, the more you will find! 

 

References

 

Alber, Rebecca. “6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber. 24 Jan. 2014.

Hess, Karin. (2023).  Rigor by Design, Not Chance: Deeper Thinking Through Actionable Instruction and Assessment. ASCD ASSN SUPERV CURR DEV, 2023.