Clip 4: Shared theoretical understandings

Melanie:

So I think they need more scaffolding. I think you need to scaffold their learning and their thinking, so they can take that way of thinking that you are modelling in that lesson into their own writing.

Glenda:

Yeah, I thought I did that, you know. I prompted him and questioned him, and I … I thought I had done a little, I thought I’d done some of that.

Melanie:

Yes, Glenda, you’re absolutely right. You did do those things, but the bottom line is that the kids still didn't get it. So let’s delve a little bit into scaffolding, so that we’ve got a clear understanding of what it is together.

Let’s see what ELP says about scaffolding. I think it’s page 81.

…

See, what’s really key there I think, for me, is the part that is about the deliberate use of strategies while handing over responsibility progressively to the learner. And then, students’ new learning will build on what they already know and can do. This might mean, for example, the teacher questioning students about their prior knowledge of a reading or writing strategy. OK, so it’s connecting into something that they already know how to do.

Glenda:

I probably don't do that. Like when we, when I looked at the data to start with, and looked at what they … I looked at what they could do and then focused on the bit that they couldn't do. I didn't really use the bit that they could do, I guess.

Melanie:

So, generally, it’s helping them so that they can think back to something that is related to what you’re teaching that they’ve been successful at. So that they can transfer that situation, that learning, that knowledge, into the situation that they are in at the time.

Glenda:

OK. So it’s actually going to be quite different for all of the kids.

Melanie:

It is. The key thing is that you’ve got to know your kids really well – and you’ve, doesn’t it – that you need to be really alert, noticing what they’re doing, noticing how they’re talking, little things they say and do, successes they’ve had.