Good Teaching Through Scaffolding Strategies
Tuesday September 29, 2009
Sometimes, teachers can fall into the trap of thinking that ESL or Special Education strategies are only necessary for those specific subgroups of our student population. However, the wisest teachers know that these techniques represent just plain old good teaching to help all children meet their learning objectives.
So, if you aren't already in the habit of using various Scaffolding Strategies, now's the time to refamiliarize yourself with these tools that are so crucial to student learning. Scaffolding gives students a context, motivation, or foundation for integrating new information into their minds.
What is your favorite way to introduce your students to new information?
Comments
I agree, special education techniques do work really well for all students. I’m currently taking a class on these techniques, and the information i’ve learned had proved to be useful in some way, for each student i’ve came in contact with. Also, if you use these techniques for your entire class, then the special needs student gets the instruction they need without feeling singled out.
The strategies used in special ed settings are often evidence based practices, proven to be effective. Why do we not use them in mainstream education where the traditional model is not working for certain students? Not every student responds to the same teaching strategy so why not adopt the flexible and tailored teaching skills from ESL and Special Ed? Unfortunately the answer is all to often…$$$. Individualized teaching is just too expensive and of course it is the students who suffer.
Dr. Stephen Trudeau
Author – The Special Needs of Parenting
http://www.eloquentbooks.com/TheSpecialNeedsOfParenting.html