Scaffolding in the Primary Classroom

It's so lovely to start off the new year busy, and busy I have been. On the list of things that I'm excited to be working on this year, include a variety of new articles and webinars on topics of interest to teachers from primary through higher education, adult and beyond.

As a start, I've already got a few pieces down on scaffolding specifically for teachers working in primary classroom. Scaffolding can work for students at any age who are interested in learning, however, those of us who have worked with young children understand the need for consistent use of scaffolding to achieve success with younger students.

That said, the age old questions of "What is scaffolding?" and "How can I plan for scaffolding in my lessons?" continue to be relevant. With a webinar coming up, I put together two different articles to explore scaffolding, how it works, and how we can design lessons around our coursebooks that provide scaffolding to our students.

Take a moment to check out these two articles, and I look forward to your comments on how you use scaffolding to support learners.

Article 1: (Short overview) Examining Scaffolding: Providing Support for Challenges

When it comes to teaching challenging content, we want to think about how to provide the gradual steps as students begin to immerse themselves in language and avoid completely throwing our students into the deep end. 

https://eltlearningjourneys.com/2018/02/07/scaffolding-provide-support-learning/

Article 2: (Lesson Plan Included) Scaffolding: Giving Primary Students the Support They Need

Unlike adults, who have experience we can draw on to create connections and foster learning, when we work with our primary and secondary students, we are often responsible for introducing students to new information for the first time. When this happens, the support that works best for success is referred to as scaffolding. Scaffolding helps us present new ideas and concepts while making sure learners have the tools they need to be successful.

https://eltlearningjourneys.com/2018/02/26/scaffolding-giving-primary-pupils-support/