What is scaffolding in education? Scaffolding refers to a number of teaching techniques used to gradually increase students toward a stronger understanding of curriculum goals. The use of scaffolding ultimately leads to greater independence in the learning process. Scaffolding involves to use of temporary supports provided by the teacher to assist students with comprehension and skills that they normally would not be able to achieve without the supports. The supports are gradually released as students become confident with the skill. Below, I list some of the strategies you can use in your FSL classroom when implementing scaffolding.
What are some scaffolding strategies?
1. Simplify. Break the task down into smaller parts and work on smaller skills before requiring completion of a larger task.
2. Illustrate or model. Provide picture clues, anchor charts or model the activity with students before requiring them to work independently.
Examples of instructional scaffolding in FSL:
The worksheet below comes from a resource of FSL daily tasks that includes the use of scaffolding. The sheets described below are from THIS BUNDLE which contains 4 great resources: levels 1, 2, 3 & 4 of FSL daily work. These levelled packets each provide 12 weeks of daily practice of beginning French vocabulary and grammar.
Each of the 4 packets provides daily routine pages for independent student work. The weeks are structured to provide scaffolding and a gradual release of supports so that students can gain more confidence in the classroom and in the French language. The packet can be used as morning work, bell work, or homework.
Each resource also includes helpful vocabulary supports in the form of full-page anchor charts. Print and laminate for student reference as they begin this package.
You will notice in this WEEK 1 - LEVEL 1 activity, the student has been provided with writing prompts and visuals to assist with the task.
Now, when we compare to the WEEK 5 tasks, some of the prompts have now changed to increase student output.
When we further compare to WEEK 8 tasks, you will notice that the prompts are now completely removed and the student will be writing the date and describing weather without the supports.