Breaking Down Scaffolding

             The fourth chapter of the book, Rigor by Design Not Chance, is called Laying the Foundation for Deeper Learning. This chapter discusses strategic scaffolding in the classroom and why it should be implemented. The chapter states, “Strategic scaffolding can advance and deepen student engagement when we start by identifying the specific goal for using a strategy and which students will most likely benefit from that support” ( Hess, 2023). As a future educator, I need to remember this to understand my goal when I implement a scaffolding strategy and how it should impact the students. 

The chapter connects to the Actionable Assessment Cycle by explaining how strategic scaffolding can be applied to each stage. The stage I found to be most impactful was stage three, Uncover Thinking and Document Evidence of Learning. It provided many scaffolding strategies I could use in my classroom someday. These are the most effective, as I have used some of these strategies as a student. Paragraph frames, partner collaborations, and Wonder of the Day are strategies used to help students show their understanding. I would use these to deepen student engagement and create strong strategies students can use and take with them. 


Another strategy that aligns with the same goal is to chunk print and nonprint texts. This is one way to help students stay engaged during lengthy texts and allows students to build stamina with print or nonprint texts. I have used this strategy in every field placement I have been in. When I read to the students, I stop and ask a question relating to the text so the students can stay focused and connect to the material.


 Chunking leads to other essential skills and strategies. The book states, “Chunking texts using teachers’ questions is a precursor to teaching students how to annotate texts” (Hess, 2023). Learning to annotate texts helps enhance the ability and confidence of students to summarize texts. Chunking and annotating are tools for students to understand texts by breaking down and analyzing the text. 


While the book explains why the scaffolding strategy of chunking is essential, an article titled 3 Ways to Chunk Text to Support Reading Comprehension elaborates on how to implement chunking effectively. The article states, “When introducing the text chunking strategy, you will need to explicitly model how to chunk the text and where to create stopping points” (Riley). Eventually, students will learn how to use the strategies independently, but showing them how to chunk and annotate texts effectively is essential. It is also necessary to explain why students must understand how to chunk and how it impacts their understanding. 


The article discusses three different strategies to teach students how to chunk independently. The first strategy is using post-it notes and marking where the student should stop. It is a visual reminder that the students should stop and reflect on what they just read. The second strategy discussed is using file folders to chunk. Cut the folders to look like the image below, which is chunked just by flipping the tabs. 

                                                                                                                                                     (Riley)

The third strategy discussed is to mark up the text. With this strategy, you can have the students place their stopping points by writing where they want to stop or by prewriting where you want them to stop. Then, once the students are more advanced, they should learn about natural stopping points such as headings, chapters, and other natural stops where they can stop to analyze.


Building these skills and strategies for breaking down texts will allow students to become more engaged in their texts. It will help them become efficient readers and confident in their reading. By stopping to think about a text, students improve their comprehension and think about the content meaningfully. I wonder at what age these strategies should be introduced and if the strategies from the article would be most effective if taught in a small or large group setting. 


References


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


Riley, Kristin. 3 Ways to Chunk Text to Support Reading Comprehension. MsJordanReads. https://msjordanreads.com/3-ways-to-chunk-text-to-support-reading-comprehension/

Comments

  1. Dr. Beth Walsh-MoormanNovember 13, 2023 at 5:48 AM

    What a great focus to take -- learning more about one strategy so you can understand it deeply!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucy PattisonNovember 15, 2023 at 8:55 AM

    I have always been interested in how to use a chunking strategy effectively. I wonder if teachers should require students to use at least one of the chunking strategies. As a future math teacher, I want to research how to use the chunking strategy in my math lessons effectively. Should teachers also model how to chunk texts on a standardized state test? Overall, I am interested in learning more scaffolding strategies to help deepen my student's understanding.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr. ForsytheNovember 19, 2023 at 4:28 PM

    Hello Megan,
    In Breaking Down Scaffolding, you initiate a discussion about how important scaffolding in the classroom should be implemented. Teachers often have different styles of teaching, but it’s whether it works for your students or not. You bring up a valid point about stage three and some examples are given, such as paragraph frames, partner, collaboration, and wonder of the day. To me, I love partner collaboration, because you often understand your friends/peers more than a complex idea from a teacher. Another idea I found noteworthy was the chunking of print that you mentioned. I do this all the time with my students, and it is easy to understand how the students understand a portion of the text and how they annotate. As you said, it is vital to have stopping points to check for understanding, and I think you’re on the right track. Building confident, and efficient readers will improve their comprehension and engage them more. Great thoughts and fantastic work.

    ReplyDelete

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