Learning new content that is often abstract is difficult enough learning it in an unfamiliar language adds a level of difficulty that native speakers do not experience. The research highlights the need to provide various forms of scaffolding to support instruction and performance on assessments.
Here are some key findings found in WIDA’s Essential Actions :
There’s a significant body of research around the practice of using scaffolds to support instruction. In this article, we’ll examine three core kinds of scaffolding and explain how they’re best applied. Without scaffolding, ELs often struggle needlessly to access grade-level content and are less able to perform well academically. Categorized under three groups – sensory, graphic, or interactive – scaffolding can be incorporated during the lesson cycle or within an assessment task. Scaffolding is the focus of Action 12 in E ssential Actions: A Handbook for Implementing WIDA’s Framework for English Language Development Standards (Gottlieb, 2013). Our ELs’ achievement is directly related to my ability to scaffold learning experiences. When a student demonstrates proficient independence, the scaffold is no longer needed (Gibbons, 2002). It’s a metaphor for providing students with temporary, supportive structures that, just like in constructing a structure, are “gradually removed as the building nears completion.” (Riddett, 2015). In education, scaffolding doesn’t mean literally constructing planks and poles against the side of a building. A graphic that describes scaffolding options.