Where did I find the vocabulary word?
I found this word in the Clark and Graves article, Scaffolding students' comprehension of text.
What does this word mean?
Scaffolding, in its educational sense, is described in various ways in the reading. My favorite variation of the definition is the Graves and Watts explanation,that, scaffolding is a "temporary supportive structure that teachers create to assist a student or a group of students to accomplish a task that they could not complete alone. I prefer this explanation over the other four that are offered because I believe it is the most comprehensive way to describe scaffolding as I understand it.
What is my level of familiarity with this word?
I have heard this word many, many, many times in my undergraduate studies and even more many times in my graduate classes. I have always had an idea of what the word meant, but I did not truly understand its meaning and its implications until reading the Clark and Graves article.
Is this a word I would like to know well and why?
This is a word that I must know well. In the Clark and Graves paper, Pressley (2002b) compares the idea of educational scaffolding intended to aid in learning to the scaffolding that supports a building before it can stand on its own. If you take this idea of a supporting structure (the scaffolding) surrounding the learning (the students) and consider the implications that teaching small chunks of digestible material has on learning, then the idea creates a whole new way of teaching. This idea supports the idea of the gradual release of responsibility model. With enough instruction and guided practice, students should be able to use the skills and strategies learned, independent of teacher guidance.
Do I want others to know this word? Who and why?
All teachers should know this word very well. As a learner and a teacher, I try to use a majority of the strategies I have learned in college, especially those related to comprehension and deep understanding of certain topics. Teachers should know this word well because I think it is one an essential instructional concept. Giving yourself or your students too much too fast can have negative concepts. This type of teaching can take a topic that students enjoy studying and turn it into a topic they care very little about.
Reference
Clark K.F. and Graves, M.F. (2005). Scaffolding students' comprehension of text. The Reading \
Teacher, 58, 570)
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