Duration: 10:51
This video showcases authentic examples of teaching practices outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)’s Teaching for How Students Learn model of learning and teaching in 4 Australian schools.
Each example aligns with a consistent set of techniques teachers can use to scaffold practice, demonstrated in a range of learning areas and with students of varying ages. These techniques include:
- Use scaffolds to model and explain new learning
- Use scaffolds to guide practise and application of learning
- Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
- Fade or remove scaffolds gradually.
You’ll also hear reflections and insights from teachers and students about how these techniques support learning.
We recommend watching this video after reviewing AERO’s Scaffold Practice practice guide. You don’t need to watch the video in one sitting – you can pause to reflect, take notes, discuss the content with colleagues or consider how it applies to your own practice. Viewing this video as part of a staff meeting or professional development session can help spark discussions and collaboration within your team.
Acknowledgements
AERO extends its gratitude to the teachers, students and families from these schools for their support and participation:
- Aveley Secondary College (WA)
- Briar Road Public School (NSW)
- Riverwood Public School (NSW)
- Serpentine Primary School (WA).
We would also like to thank Professor Lorraine Hammond, Dr Nathaniel Swain, members of AERO’s First Nations Expert Reference Group, and the teachers and school leaders who reviewed and provided feedback on these videos.
More information
You can find more information about this and related practices in:
- AERO’s Teaching for How Students Learn model of learning and teaching
- Scaffold Practice practice guide.
Transcript
[On-screen text] Scaffold practice: What it is:
- Planned support to bridge the gap between current abilities and the learning objectives.
- Supports planned before instruction commences or introduced during the instruction process to respond to students’ needs.
- Supports for all students to be successful in their learning.
- Building students’ capacity for independence by gradually removing scaffolds over time.
- Sustaining use of scaffolds as required for all students to access and meet learning objectives.
[On-screen text] This video demonstrates examples of the following techniques to scaffold practice:
- Use scaffolds to model and explain new learning
- Use scaffolds to guide practise and application of learning
- Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
- Fade or remove scaffolds gradually
Stephanie Le Lievre, Principal, Year 4/5 teacher, Serpentine Primary School: So, I determine when I'm going to use scaffolds by checking for understanding regularly of the class. So, in the lesson, I often had like – I had a hinge point question – to make sure we could continue on.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Stephanie Le Lievre: They had to understand what an appositive was before they were able to actually combine 2 sentences with an appositive. Likewise, I also had lots of chinning, checking for understanding, looking if they were putting the commas in the right spot to make sure they understood where the appositive started, where it finished. And then from using that information, providing that scaffolds that point of need.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Stephanie Le Lievre: All right. And in 5 seconds, you are going to chin that for me as long as you've got one sentence: 5, 4, 3, 2 and chin it —— Absolutely brilliant. Okay, can you park it? Don't rub it. Don't rub it up. I'm going to choose some people. Max can you stand up for me? Stand, deliver your beautiful sentence there, please.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to model and explain new learning
Stephanie Le Lievre: So, towards the beginning of the lesson, when it's heavily I Do sort of a practice and guided practice. It's a lot more co-constructing the sentences, pausing, checking for understanding, making sure I'm highlighting what information needs to form the appositive and then slowly reducing that scaffold gradually.
[On-screen text] Fade or remove scaffolds gradually
Stephanie Le Lievre: You have one minute. If you finish that sentence, you can do the second one.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Stephanie Le Lievre: I like how people are putting their commas around the appositive.
Melissa Watson, Year 10 humanities teacher, Aveley Secondary College: Scaffolding, when you're first teaching a skill, is very hands-on for a teacher. You’re really stepping students through a concept.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to model and explain new learning
Melissa Watson: You're using think alouds. You're explaining your thought process as to how you got to where you are. You're asking the students to explain that process back to you, as well.
Student: Develop the things that they don't have.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Melissa Watson: What do you think, Kayla?
Student: [Inaudible.]
Melissa Watson: Absolutely. And why is there less water?
Student: [Inaudible.]
Melissa Watson: Absolutely, so harder for them to build that infrastructure. What did you think, Angus?
Tanya Judd, Assistant Principal, Year 1 teacher, Briar Road Public School: In the lesson that I did today, I knew that for some of my students, writing 2-digit numbers sometimes could be a challenge. Even though that they can say them and they understand them, they can't always get the numbers in the right order.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to guide practise and application of learning
Tanya Judd: So we give them a hundreds chart before they begin that lesson. They have that there as a scaffold that they can refer back to. It just takes off, I think, the worry for them about not being able to be successful. And if we teach students to use those scaffolds really carefully, they do it quite fluently and automatically, and it doesn't prevent them from really engaging in the problem that you're teaching at that time.
All right. On the board, I have the problem that we are going to work on. Let's have a look at our problem. Read your problem with me.
All: 34 + 24 =.
Tanya Judd: Scaffolds are really important part of our lesson because they allow all of the students who need a little bit of additional support to engage in the lesson. At the same time, students are able to then manage themselves, and their own understandings, and know when those scaffolds might not be as necessary.
[On-screen text] Fade or remove scaffolds gradually
Tanya Judd: By providing it at the beginning of the lesson – or at the beginning of a task – students can then know that they've got it, which allows them to feel confident and successful. But they also can make some decisions reflecting on their own learning that maybe I don't need to refer to it today. And they get to have that great joy of, you know, knowing that they don't need that scaffold anymore. I think as the teacher, you have to monitor very carefully how much they're using it, how often they're using it, and start to encourage, you know, for that scaffold to be taken away when the time is right.
Now, if you just want to use your whiteboard for this, you certainly can. Let me show you the next question.
Student: Ooh!
Tanya Judd: Ooh!
Student: This is easy.
Tanya Judd: All right. On your whiteboards, going through those steps all together. In my maths lesson, there were multiple opportunities for me to check students' understanding.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Tanya Judd: And through those opportunities, I began to notice that one of my students in the front row was demonstrating real mastery. He had great automaticity at applying those self-talk steps to the problems that I was presenting to him. So, when we came to the You Do part of the lesson, I directed that student to go straight to the challenge part and to skip the everybody part. He wasn't using the scaffold that he had previously needed. He was answering questions confidently and with automaticity, and he was able to explain his thinking. So, it's really important for me, I guess, to monitor those check-for-understanding points of the lesson to help me to know when students are ready to be extended and challenged and when students might need to stay with scaffolding a little bit longer.
Okay. My next problem is 46 + 30. Read with me.
Tanya Judd and class: 46 + 30.
Chloe Howard, Year 11 science teacher, Aveley Secondary College: I manage scaffolding by prompting my students with breaking the question down, particularly with mark allocation in the daily review.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to guide practise and application of learning
Chloe Howard: When we come across exam questions, it's really important students know what depth they need for their questions. And so by prompting them verbally and also visually with the images, I find I'm able to get better quality answers from them.
All right, Qi Hen, could you please tell me where does cardiac muscle originate from in a complete sentence?
Student: Cardiac muscles originate from the mesoderm.
Chloe Howard: Good. Cardiac muscle originate from the mesoderm. Remember, we learned muscle, mesoderm. Both begin with ‘M’. So when I say ‘muscle’, can you please say ‘mesoderm’? Muscle.
Class: Mesoderm.
Chloe Howard: Beautiful. The term ‘contrast’ – we've seen that come up in questions a lot in exams.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to guide practise and application of learning
Chloe Howard: What does the word contrast mean? And if you had the question to contrast, what would be the best way to structure your answer? Off you go. Pair-share.
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Chloe Howard: All right. Abby, could you please tell me, what does the verb ‘contrast’ refer to? And how would you structure your answer in an assessment?
Jessie Griffiths, Assistant Principal, Year 3/4 teacher, Briar Road Public School: With my vocabulary lesson, I was able to scaffold that throughout – in ways of having the definition there on the whiteboard – so if students needed that to refer back to.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to model and explain new learning
Jessie Griffiths: But also, as we practise more and more, I was able to get them to pair-share but change my questioning, and get them to really justify why is that example of immense or why is that an example of darted, and really get them to justify. Also, providing a sentence stem for them to use when writing and using that vocab word was a scaffold.
[On-screen text] Fade or remove scaffolds gradually
Jessie Griffiths: But then again, building in that challenge. So taking it away and letting them – okay, you can write a sentence on your own without that there for you.
All right, so our first word is darted. Can everyone say ‘darted’?
Class: Darted.
Jessie Griffiths: Let's count the syllables in darted.
Jessie Griffiths and class: Dar-ted.
Jessie Griffiths: How many?
Class and Jessie Griffiths: Two.
Jessie Griffiths: Good. Alright. Now I'm going to show you the meaning of ‘darted’. So, track with me. Get your tracking finger. Thank you. To dart is to move suddenly or quickly. I want you to show me. Pretend your hand is from the Iron Man. That hand – remember the hand that fell off? Pretend you're darting to get those seagulls. Go. Dart. Show me darted. Excellent. That's darted.
[On-screen text] Students have been taught this routine to call for attention
Jessie Griffiths: Okay, Briar!
Class: Brilliant.
Jessie Griffiths: This time, you are going to finish the sentence stem on your board.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to guide practise and application of learning
Jessie Griffiths: You do not need to write the whole sentence. Finish off the stem. As money began falling from the sky … off you go.
Lauren Vickery, Year 3/4 teacher, Riverwood Public School: So to explain new content to kids, I like to fade scaffolding. So I’ll start off with concrete scaffold. So I'll have my place value discs, and I'll physically manipulate them, moving them around the board.
[On-screen text] Use scaffolds to model and explain new learning
Lauren Vickery: Sometimes the kids will use those as well. Then we'll move on to a more pictorial representation.
[On-screen text] Fade or remove scaffolds gradually (concrete, pictorial, abstract sequencing)
Lauren Vickery: So they'll be just images of those on the board. And then finally, we'll show the abstract, so the algorithm. And I'll model that one, and then the students eventually will be able to use just the abstract part on their own, independently.
Nafez, what was my second step?
Student: Your second step was to – to add 13.
Lauren Vickery: Beautiful. I added the tens. Thank you, Nafez.
Tim Shaw, Assistant Principal, Year 5/6 teacher, Riverwood Public School: When addressing misconceptions or students not understanding in the novel study, I saw that students were actually just retelling the story.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Tim Shaw: And I just did a bit of a verbal – hmm, I know we have been talking about what is exactly happening, but the question is what is the main idea? So giving them those verbal reminders, and those verbal scaffolds, to be able to stop those misconceptions from happening and actually hone in on the question being asked.
[On-screen text] Students have been taught this routine to call for attention
Tim Shaw: Stop, look and …
Class: Listen.
Tim Shaw: I'm just listening to some conversations that are happening here.
[On-screen text] Monitor learning to inform use of scaffolds
Tim Shaw: And remember, when we're coming up with a main idea or concept, am I retelling what has happened in the story?
Class: [Murmuring] No.
Tim Shaw: No. I'm thinking about the key ideas or the key things that have happened and trying to create a category where all of these ideas fit into. All right? So, at this time, we're not retelling the story. We're thinking about what the actual author – or the message the author is trying to convey here. Continue.
Class: [Interposing voices.]
Ebony Dowson, Year 6 teacher, Serpentine Primary School: So, in my lesson with perimeter, we, sort of, started at the base level of perimeter is the outside of the shape.
[On-screen text] Fade or remove scaffolds gradually
Ebony Dowson: But, as we went on, we went through, sort of, the steps that they had to follow to do that. And then I take those steps away.
16 + 16 =?
Class: 32 centimetres.
Ebony Dowson: 32 centimetres, it would be. Does anyone know a different way that we could have done that? Yes?
Keywords: student learning, science of learning