Week 4 Young Learner

Y: Scaffolding is a technique I use ,as a special ed. teacher, for writing and math.
In math, I show the student the first step to the math process. I ask the student to repeat what I had just done. I show the student the second step and ask the student to repeat what I had just done. I continue this process until all the steps are completed. This is an important area to practice this process because students, especially special needs students, have a hard time with multi-tasking. Sometimes I may highlight each step in the process. I continue to do this procedure until the student can work the problem on their own.
For writing, I start by showing the student how to prewrite. I prefer using the "web" pre-writing process. I draw the web and ask students for the information. I fill in the web with their own thoughts and suggestions. After obtaining this information, I show the student how to choose one "web-link" to write about. I offer suggestions and the students put the sentences together. We continue this process until all the web-links are used. The technique allows the student to become an emergent writer, to put their thoughts on paper. Later, the students will begin to draw their own web and fill in their information. They may still need help putting sentences together. Continue the scaffolding process until they reach mastery.
Michelle Miller