Scaffolding
Student Thinking in Projects
As
teachers, we need to be fostering our student’s skills, they will be required
to possess in the future. There are
three ways in which we can scaffold to ensure our students thinking skills and
knowledge are progressing to the next level.
1. Clarify
the learning goal: It is important for our students and us as teachers to begin
with the end in mind. “What do we want
them to accomplish?” We must be clear in
what it is we want them to learn and practice.
2. Formatively
assess and provide guided practice: We first need to identify our student’s
current skill level. This can be done
through formative assessments; classroom discussions, writing opportunities,
and teacher observation. Through these assessments,
students can learn from each other’s thinking and reasoning skills. It allows the teacher to see within student
thinking and promotes teacher action in where our students need support and
guidance.
3. Create
space for thinking about thinking: The refers to the process used to plan,
monitor, and assess one’s understanding.
Students will gain and sense of their strengths and weaknesses as
learners, writers, readers, group members, and test-takers.
Through
PBL, our students increase their capacity to think in complex ways. They are able to take a challenging task and
solve it using their advanced solving, reasoning, and thinking skills.
Hi Kristi,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you sharing your thoughts on ways to scaffold student thinking in projects. We've discussed the importance of formative assessments and clear learning targets but what intrigued me the most in this piece was the suggestion for creating space for thinking about thinking and providing both time and support for students to both pre-plan but also to reflect on their planning.
Thanks,
Dawn
I like that #1 on your list is "Clarify the learning goal." So many times I have in my mind what the purpose of the task is, but I fail to tell my students what the purpose of the task is. If they don't know what they are supposed to learn and why, they won't have the motivation to do much of anything that we say. That must always be first and foremost in our minds, especially as we motivate them to complete what can sometimes be a very daunting task during a PBL.
ReplyDelete