Dear Chera
Have you ever seen a building under construction, surrounded by scaffolding to
support it as it
grows, with the steel supports gradually removed as it gets taller and sturdier?
That is where the
term comes from and it refers to the amount of support we give our students when we
introduce them
to new concepts.
We build on a strong foundation of what they already know and then guide them in
their quest to
find out more through structures such as the Big 6, PLUS, the Information Literacy
Process and other
models of learning to research. This usually begins with a step-by-step approach
to each part that
needs to be attempted, but, as each student develops the skills for themselves,
they need less and
less hand-holding until they are able to research independently. The age of the
student makes no
difference - it is their familiarity (or lack of it) with the new task that
determines the amount of
scaffolding needed.
I have developed some pages starting at
http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au/resource_centre/info_lit/intro.htm (either click on
it, or copy and
paste it) that are designed to help students and classroom teachers understand and
use what
Australians call The Information Literacy Process, but you will see that it is very
similar to the
Big 6 http://www.big6.com/ and other US-used models, which others will direct you
to. Follow the
links at the bottom of that page, but if you want to see scaffolding, in
particular, in action, then
work through The Project Planner.
In your case, a "thought-provoking question" means one that cannot be answered with
'yes' or 'no' or
copy-and-paste. It is one that starts with one of the verbs from the upper end of
Bloom's Taxonomy
(analyse, compare, evaluate etc) and which requires personal input (opinion,
judgement, conclusion)
from the respondent. A true webquest, such as those from Dodge and March
especially, is a perfect
example of posing such a question and then providing scaffolding for a solution
which is only
arrived at after the negotiation and agreement of the various points-of-view.
However, for a self-confessed computer novice, I would leave such a strategy for
now, and perhaps
look at something like "Your 15-year-old Australian cousin is coming to stay with
you in
Pennsylvania for four weeks during her summer vacation in January. What advice
would you give her
about what to bring, what to see and how much money she will need?" This sort of
personalised task
has lots of appeal and gives scope for all sorts of investigations that will need
various degrees of
scaffolding.
Welcome to a great profession and good luck,
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
T. 61 2 6205 6162
F. 61 2 6205 7242
E. barbara@iimetro.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
"Together we learn from each other."
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