Chapter 3

 Scaffolding or Differentiation?

In the book “Rigor by Design, Not chance” and in the article that I found they both discuss Differentiation vs. Scaffolding, the different types of scaffolding and why and how to use it.  According to the book these two things often get mistaken for each other or get mixed up. The way to remember it is that scaffolding provides steps to support the completion of the task whereas differentiation gives the students different options as to what assignment they want to work on. “Scaffolding doesn’t change the rigor of the task, but can reduce the demands on a student's working memory during learning.” (Hess pg 72)

In the article I found, Differentiation vs. Scaffolding, they put an emphasis on using the two together, whereas the book focuses mostly on using one or the other. “Differentiation and scaffolding are complementary and can be used seamlessly, so an ideal manner to use these methods is in conjunction with one another.” (Keeling) When using both together the key is to scaffold the lesson to set students up for mastery and then while you are delivering the lesson you are differentiating and individualizing the information for all students. When you are looking at using one or the other and not both, you want to look at your students and see who your audience is and what would be best for them. You can do this by testing your students prior knowledge on the content, if the student has some prior knowledge on the topic the differentiation is the way that you will want to go, this gives the students a chance to pick their way of learning best, if the students have no prior knowledge then scaffolding step by step is how you can best help your students. 

There are different types of scaffolding, teacher and peer scaffolding, this is when teachers provide support when introducing a new topic or assignment and then as they are learning the new concept the teacher slowly takes away the scaffolding things they put in place over time. Content scaffolding is when the teacher can introduce a basic version of the lesson and as they are teaching the lesson they can use an easier paired reading or video to go along with the lesson. Task scaffolding is when teachers can break small multi step tasks into smaller steps. Lastly is material scaffolding, this includes using support materials for students such as nonprint text, graphic organizers, study guides, etc. 



Resources 


Cchiaro. (2021, November 12). Differentiation vs. scaffolding. Graduate Programs for Educators. https://www.graduateprogram.org/2020/01/differentiation-vs-scaffolding/ 


Hess, Karin. (2019). Rigor by design, not chance: Deeper thinking through actionable instruction and assessment. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). 


Comments

  1. Dr. Beth Walsh-MoormanNovember 11, 2024 at 2:21 PM

    In your experience do teachers struggle to understand the difference between these two? I think they often do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. G PetersNovember 16, 2024 at 4:43 AM

    I have always found scaffolding to be a fun challenge for myself as a teacher. It is like a puzzle and trying to find all of the various ways to get to the end! I really liked being able to read so many scaffolding strategies and want to try to utilize more of the techniques in my classroom!

    ReplyDelete

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