How High is Your Scaffold?

A scaffold is defined as “a supporting framework.”  In a physical sense, a scaffold is “a temporary platform used to elevate and support workers and materials during work on a structure or machine,” and according to Merriam-Webster, “scaffolding may be raised and lowered.”  Coaches are in the scaffolding business and are constantly deciding how high the scaffolding needs to be in order for the job to be accomplished – the important job of having students meet the standards or goals we have set for them.
 

At the beginning of a coaching cycle, coaches and teachers choose a focus for their work together, then the coach provides decreasing levels of scaffolding as teachers get more proficient in the support they are providing for their students.  In the schools and clinics where I’ve worked, the GIR model for coaching has been used as a guide for thinking about how much scaffolding teachers need, and the result has been sustained improvement in instruction.*
 

How much support do the teachers you are working with need?  Each teacher is different, and the support each teacher needs varies depending on the focus you have chosen.  A teacher who only looks to you for affirmation when focusing on guided reading may need modeling and recommendations when it comes to choosing effective student examples for a CGI math lesson.  The GIR coaching continuum describes coaching moves that give decreasing levels of support:  modeling, recommending, asking questions, affirming, and praising (see model below).  By considering a continuum of coaching moves that provide gradually decreasing support, you can provide the right scaffolding for completing the job at hand - – the important job of having students meet their learning goals.

Resources to explore:

Looking for math resources for SmartBoard?  Check out the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives:

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/category_g_1_t_1.html

(you can use the online version – no need to download anything)

Student-Centered Coaching author Diane Sweeney’s makes these recommendations for implementing the Common Core:

http://dianesweeney.com/seven-steps-for-coaching-to-the-common-core/?utm_source=December%202012%20Blast%20&utm_campaign=Dec%202012%20Blast&utm_medium=email

In this fast-paced world were good reading is sometimes defined by the number of words read in a minute, I love what’s happening with the Slow Reading Movement.  This Newsweek article gives an overview: 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/06/23/slow-reading-an-antidote-for-a-fast-world.html

An from Choice Literacy puts the slow reading movement into a broader context:

https://www.choiceliteracy.com/articles-detail-view.php?id=1122

You can read more about the slow reading movement at:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/1758.cfm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/15/slow-reading

http://www.slowmovement.com/slow_books.php

It’s interesting to think about the connections between “slow reading” and descriptions of “close reading” that are getting emphasis with implementation of the Common Core. 

That’s it for this week.

Happy coaching!

 *See “The Gradual Increase of Responsibility Model: Coaching for Teacher Change” in Literacy Research and Instruction, 51(1), 27-47  and   “The Gradual Increase of Responsibility: Scaffolds for Change.”  ProQuest Digital Dissertations. UMI Number: 3475305, both by Vicki S. Collet.