Scaffolding in the classroom

I have only had on experience in the classroom so far. But the first thing they do in the morning is listen to two or three students talk about a story they wrote themselves. After reading what they wrote the other students are able to ask questions and comment on the story. This is great way to build language skills and interaction between students. It helps socially behind students get a great opportunity to express themselves and be forced to practice there speaking and communicating skills. The most important part is that the teacher is able to guide positive feedback from student setting the rules ahead of time about what type of questions and comments can be asked. This is just one way that we can build students vocabulary and ability to socially interact.

Chapter 3, Gibbons

In chapter 3 we read about how certain text represent certain linguistic features. Then it went on to go over four stages. The first stage was about doing the experiment. Having students perform a science experiment and then having them discuss the methods they used and result is a great way to help language develop for many students. It gives some students opportunities that they would not have had without the group interaction. The next step was to introduce new vocabulary and i thought this was a great way to keep kids interested and at the same time continue to build their language skills. Having a deep vocabulary is great and when people learn new words they love to tell others about it. Its a great way to help build interest in education and good language skills. The third stage is guided reporting, this is like any guided lesson the teacher is working with the students to help demonstrate the proper language and ideas behind what they are learning. Its important for the teacher to model appropriate vocabulary and how its is used after they have learned the new words. Finally the fourth stage is Journal writing, having students write about their experiences is a great way for them to build strong literate skills and deepen there language ability. The book spoke about the prompt, what have we learned. Thats good but just writing anything is good for individuals thought process and developing interest in writing and language.

Scaffolding

Chapter 3 talked about a structure of scaffolding in a science lesson. There are four stages mentioned in which they are helped through the lessons.

1. Doing an experiment

2. Introducing key vocabulary

3. Teacher-guided reporting

4. Journal writing

Through these stages the ESL students are able to learn a little at a time and incorporate a little at a time so as to not overwhelm them with too much information. It seems to be very effective as the students are able to do the experiment and explore the experiment before learning all the new vocabulary. This allows them to put what happens into their own words and then apply the new vocabulary in stage 2.

Stage 3 is the teacher-guided reporting. This is especially helpful to the students because they are able to put their thoughts together but also be guided in the right direction by the teacher. The last stage is difficult because it is individual. Journal writing allows the children to write down their ideas that they went over first in a small group, then with the teacher, and now by themselves. They can sort out what happened in the experiment and also add the new vocabulary words introduced by the teacher.

This scaffolding method seems very affective in an ESL majority room and it could be helpful in a general classroom where maybe not everyone is ESL.

If there is something between a digital native and a digital immigrant then that's what I think I would fall under. My generation has grown up with the different technologies around them, however, I feel like I am pretty uncomfortable with most technology. I end up really stressed out mostly with computers. Cell phones seem to be easier for me to understand.

In the article, video games are brought up. I found it interesting that it said video games are able to capture attention for so long. It really made me think about the idea of copying the ideas to maybe incorporate it into the classroom creating longer attentions spans. Anything seems to be possible with new technologies always coming out. As teachers we need to be on top of all of it or as much as we can so as to help this new generation of students reach their full learning potential.

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrant

I think I am definitely a digital native. Although there are many new technologies out there that I am unfamiliar with, for the most part I grew up with computers, cell phones, and video game consoles. Now my generation is obsessed with cell phone texting communication, playing "wii," and checking their facebooks.

The part of Marc Prensky's article that I found to be the most interesting was when he discussed multi-tasking:

"Younger learners have been multi tasking since their infancy. Whether listening to music while studying, instant messaging while in the classroom, downloading music while surfing the web, or speaking on the cell phone while writing a paper."

I have done and do all of these things. It really makes me think about our culture and that we are able to do so many things at once, rarely am I doing just one thing ever. I think teachers have to take this into account in their teaching. The generations we will be teaching may have a much shorter attention span to "lecture/recitation" type classes. I think incorporating technology into everyday curriculum is important because although there are many forms of technology that are more of a bother to learning, there are many that can be very conducive to learning in the classroom. Also children need to learn how to use certain technologies because the rest of their lives will include these technologies. I am excited for our class project coming up where we explore a new technology because I think this will be very important in my future classroom.

Scaffolding

Cannot complete this blog about students scaffolding in my classroom because I have not had a day in my placement classroom yet.

Scaffolding Language Scaffolding Learning CH3

My initial reaction to reading this chapter was that I was overwhelmed at the thought of having all but two students be ESL students. However, I have more understanding and respect for this teacher after reading the article.

I found the learning "centers" that she used with her students to be interesting.
1. Small groups
2.Introducing Key Vocabulary
3. Teacher guided response
4. Journal writing

"This cycle was repeated several times during the unit on magnets." (p43)

The fact that the teacher used this process repeatedly with her students, shows that the repetition is effective for her students. Her students got more and more comfortable with this sequence and therefore, they were able to learn so much from this sequence each time.

"What can we learn from this example? First, we can see again how small-group work supports learning" (p44)

Further on in the chapter the teacher explains the vocabulary to the students and she uses actions to reinforce her words. I found this to be interesting because I think using actions with verbal cues in any classroom is effective.