The Scaffolding Effect: Rethinking What Support in Learning Looks Like
Scaffolds are supports we put in place to guide children towards independence. Some can be pre-scripted, and others require adaptive teaching. This is what makes scaffolding challenging for teachers.
Scaffolding is a word that gets thrown around a lot in education. I often hear teachers say they provide scaffolds most of the time. Although I knew about and used scaffolding daily, I hadn’t closely considered each of the following four questions until I read The Scaffolding Effect by Rachel Ball and Alex Fairlamb.
Do I need to start with scaffolds right away?
Which students may need scaffolds?
What type of scaffold should I provide?
When and how will I remove the scaffold?
The Nuance Behind the Concept
As an intervention teacher, I often fall into the trap of providing students with scaffolds right from the start. After all, students who need interventions are struggling with reading. The support is meant to lift students, but the book brings up a good question. If everybody needs the scaffold, is it really a scaffold any longer, or is it just your lesson plan?
Pitfalls:
In the past, I fell into this trap because I wanted to support all my struggling readers, but I have come to realize that not all struggling readers need the same thing. Just like they may not be struggling with the same skill, they may not all need the same amount of support.
Another thing I’ve learned: It is easier to add support than to remove it. Even in an intervention setting, students should only receive scaffolds when necessary. Otherwise, they become overreliant on them and are unable to transfer their learning to different contexts or settings. Although scaffolds take many forms (verbal, visual, retrieval, modeling, etc.), I am much more aware of the nuances within each type after reading The Scaffolding Effect.
The biggest and most impactful shift I have made this year has been fading my support. Too often, I used scaffolds for far too long, letting students get too comfortable and wondering why they didn’t transfer skills as quickly as I had expected. Previously, I found myself reminding students, verbally, of the process for writing a gist statement. I would make scooping marks under syllables in their texts when they were stuck, or I would continue to verbally segment syllables with students while they spelled a multisyllabic word. Although I meant well, these supports were not fostering independence or transfer.
These days, I strive to fade support gradually by checking both procedural and declarative knowledge. I also try to fade incrementally so that there aren’t huge leaps for children to make. Utilizing retrieval strategies has played a large role in this shift. As I guide students to recall and connect their learning, they become more proficient and independent.
Ways I am Applying Scaffolding to EBLI Instruction
Using syllable and sound lines when spelling multisyllabic words. At the beginning, I support students by segmenting syllables with them, or modeling and having them segment the sounds within each syllable.
During multisyllabic word reading, I separate syllables with spaces and have students thread syllables together. In addition, I underline graphemes that work together to spell a sound.
When writing gist statements, we write short phrases together to answer who/what, where, when, and why questions. I write as students watch how I segment syllables and sounds to spell words. I model how to turn those phrases into a sentence explaining the main points in ten words or fewer. I dictate that sentence so students can focus on spelling.
During the read, read back, read again routine, I model what fluent reading should sound like.
When we write high-frequency words, students segment sounds, but I show them the spelling and have them match the sounds they said to the graphemes they see.
As students are first introduced to a new sound through a sound sort, I read the key word, and students listen for which graphemes represent the sound we are learning. Students dot and dash sounds depending on the number of graphemes that match that sound as a way to represent how many graphemes spell each sound. (A dot is one letter, and a dash is two or more letters)
During vocabulary mapping, I use a worked example by drawing a symbolic picture and then using the vocabulary word to describe the illustration. Students then try this with their partners.
Ways I am Fading Support and Building Independence
Teaching students to understand procedures and monitor their own reading is the ultimate goal. I want my students to get to the point where they know what to do when reading a multisyllabic word they have never read or a complex sentence they need to break down. Reading is about making meaning, and when that breaks down, you need to do something, or the cumulative effects continue to pile on. The Scaffolding Effect brought forth a tough question. When is it time to remove the scaffolds? This is something I am still working on in my instruction. It’s not easy because all too often, we continue to over-support and leave students dependent on us to guide them through every decision and every process. It’s no wonder they have trouble applying strategies back in their classrooms.
Some Examples:
One of the things I have been working on through EBLI is differentiating the prompts I give students.
Example 1:
Early on, I support students by trading sounds with them. If a student says an incorrect vowel sound, I will give them the correct sound and ask them to reblend the word. Once I have taught students multiple spellings that match specific sound patterns, I know I can ask them, “What’s another sound you know?” This allows the child to recall another sound we have learned for that spelling. Other times, I might ask the child if that sounds like a word. If they have heard that word before, they’ll know, and then I can tell them to flex or change the vowel sound. I can also give a student two options and let them blend the word. I have found that if I just point to a word, students can go back and fix it without any verbal prompting. Each of the supports I listed demonstrates varying levels of scaffolding. They range from most supportive to least supportive. What I have learned is that even struggling students do not always need us to step in with the heaviest hand. By asking children to recall what they have learned in small incremental ways, I can fade my support so they are not reliant on me to adjust.
Example 2:
During gist statements, I begin by having the group share phrases that answer the who, what, when, where, and why questions. I write phrases while modeling how to segment sounds and write words. I begin by modeling, but soon, students help to take those phrases and create a gist statement. I dictate the statement, and they write, lightening their cognitive load so they can focus on spelling. Once students are comfortable with this procedure, I ask them to write the phrases independently on their boards. From there, we create a group gist statement, or I have them read our phrases and create an individual gist statement. The final step is that students can answer the phrases themselves and create their own gist statements. One part I’ve added this year is having students explain the steps behind writing a gist statement. If they can talk themselves through the strategy, then they can do it independently in any content area.
Example 3:
At first, students rely on me to separate multisyllabic words by syllables, say sounds, and thread them together to read the larger word. In the past, I would find myself scooping syllables in student texts when they were stuck, pointing out how to read parts of the word. While this was effective in the moment, it never translated into students reading those multisyllabic words independently. Currently, when we practice reading, I move from scooping syllables to asking students to show me how they would read that word. Having students think through the process is more impactful than showing them. Because they have learned many prefixes and suffixes, they can now recognize that they may only need to look more closely at a particular part of a word. I may verbally prompt them to recognize a prefix, suffix, or root. This verbal reminder may be enough to move them along in their reading. One practice I have begun as a “Do Now” for students is having them read 1-2 multisyllabic words on their whiteboards when they first sit down. I set a time limit and have them read the words without stepping in. This builds independence and automaticity. This practice helps develop students’ independence when they encounter unfamiliar words in a text. They need to acknowledge that they can read unfamiliar words. Struggling readers tend to hold fast to supports unless we purposefully work to remove them.
Example 4:
When students are spelling multisyllabic words, I teach them an EBLI routine. Say the word, say each syllable, draw a syllable line, and then segment the sounds in each syllable. The students use a spelling skeleton to make corrections, then spell the word in its entirety without the skeleton. At first, I support by segmenting syllables with them, and we use our hands to separate syllables orally. Students are always asked to segment sounds in each syllable, even from the beginning. If they are having trouble hearing the sounds, I will show them my fingers and say the word. Then we try again. I might even ask students what sound they hear in a certain spot if they are stuck. Over time, I begin to fade away. I stop segmenting syllables with students orally, but I might use the chopping gesture to make sure they are separating syllables. I also gradually fade the skeleton. It is not always necessary to use it. I can show students corrections using the skeleton, then have them immediately write the word without the skeleton. Some students may use the skeleton if they are struggling, and others may not need it. Because we use mini-whiteboards a lot in our practice, all students have multiple opportunities to practice. A student may be asked to spell the word one additional time if they were unable to spell quickly. Each scaffold is meant to support the individual student, even though we are all doing the same task. This helps me lift the level of learning without lowering the ceiling of expectation.
Example 5:
There are three reads during the fluency routine: Read, Read Back, Read Again. During the first read, students are decoding words and may sound disfluent. Over time, as students become more capable of decoding multisyllabic words, I fade support by letting them read several sentences or even a paragraph at a time. I only stop students if I notice a particular sentence is problematic and impacts our comprehension of the reading. Within the group, students reach these milestones at different points and with different texts. This is an area where planning and responsiveness are essential to developing students’ skills.
My Take-Aways:
By asking children to recall what they have learned in small incremental ways, I can fade my support so they are not reliant on me to make adjustments. There is power in realizing you have the tools to help yourself. Of course, this means you need the right tools or explicit instruction initially to ensure you are ready for these varied levels of scaffolds. Since attending to scaffolding in this nuanced way, I have found that students are better able to transfer their work from skills to text. Students do not need me to outline a procedure because they can explain both the procedural and declarative knowledge involved in the task. This transfer has helped create accelerated student learning. It has also given struggling students independence and confidence that what they are learning goes beyond the four walls of my classroom. This is a potent realization. It eliminates learned helplessness and instead supports the development of self-efficacy.