Scaffolding Teaching Strategies

1. by Nate Binzen

2. Addressing New York 8th Grade Social Studies Standard 8.1f: “Students will examine the Populist Party as a reform effort by farmers in response to industrialization.”

3. Big Ideas to be addressed in the unit:

3.1. 1. Industrialization contributed to the urbanization of America, putting strains on agrarian traditionalists.

3.2. 2. Not uncommonly during large-scale changes, a struggling interest group perceives certain “villains” harming their cause.

3.3. 3. Problems resulting from these changes sparked the Progressive movement and increased calls for reform.

4. Unit objectives:

4.1. 1. Student can identify the main problems farmers were facing.

4.1.1. Scaffolding strategies:

4.1.1.1. Preview the texts and discuss key vocabulary: before breaking out into reading groups, teacher leads a discussion of the meaning of several key words

4.1.1.2. Think aloud: teacher calls a brief halt after the first few minutes of reading, and talks the students through the process of thinking about the reading

4.2. 2. Student can identify more than one force or group farmers blamed for their plight.

4.2.1. Scaffolding strategies:

4.2.1.1. L'il fishbowl: after first round of reading, teacher picks a group and has them talk through several questions about the reading together

4.2.1.2. Visual aids: supplement the texts at each table with images.

4.2.1.3. Sentence starters: toss out some incomplete sentences and prompt students to complete them

4.3. 3. Student can define a consequence or implication of the farmers’ actions during this era.

4.3.1. Scaffolding strategies:

4.3.1.1. Focus on the significance: students pair up to explain why the reading helps them identify a consequence. Then some of the pairs are asked to describe their findings to the class.

4.3.1.2. Open-ended questions: pause to ask a couple of 'significance' questions and prompt a brief conversation.

5. The lesson: students examine several primary sources pertaining to the financial struggles of American farmers in the late 19th century, then select roles from which they comment on a series of events.

6. Key factors about these students (as to why these scaffolding strategies were selected)

6.1. In this class, 1 student has ADHD; 1 student has a reading disability; and 5 students are English Language Learners. Meanwhile, several students whip through this material fast.

6.2. I looked for ways to engage some students in the task of showing other students how to do the tasks.

6.3. And I looked for ways to team up students to support those who need more help.

6.4. Mainly, I looked for ways to give everybody a way through the tasks at hand without slowing things down. So many of the scaffolds are intrinsic to the unfolding of the lesson content.