Q – How do you know when it’s time to push a child to his/her ZPD on a task and when to scaffold?
U –I understand that it’s important to plan curriculum that is challenging. By observing the children and understanding their ZPD on a given task, I can plan curriculum that will move my students to a new level of competency with a given task.
O – I loved watching it at work in the video we watched last Friday. The music teacher, who was trying to get the student to sing the rhythm, let the child sing it in his own key because that’s what he could do at the time. I would love to be a fly on the wall throughout the year in her classroom to see how she pushed that student in new ways when he was ready.
T – The idea that learning is a social and to let children learn by engaging in dialogue with one another is something I will take with me into my teaching. I hope that my classroom will be a community that is open to discussion and has a respectful and caring feel to it.
E – I want to make sure that I’m continually observing my children to understand how I can scaffold their learning and push them to their ZPD. I think observing them will be the easy part – pushing them forward at the right time and knowing when to back off will be the hard part.
Linda,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the "E" part of your QUOTE. I think the observation will be the easy part, but knowing when to push and when to back off will be difficult for me as well. Letting students work through something on their own can be challenging. It confuses my want to help them succeed and my trust they can do it on their own. I hope that by working through courses like this, it will be easier to identify when and where to apply the right pressures.
Brendan