Rosenshine’s Principle 8: Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks: The teacher provides students with temporary supports and scaffolds to assist them when they learn difficult tasks.

“Research Findings

Investigators have successfully provided students with scaffolds, or additional supports, to help them learn difficult tasks. A scaffold is a temporary support that is used to assist a learner. These scaffolds are gradually withdrawn as learners become more competent, although some students may continue to rely on scaffolds when they encounter particularly difficult problems. Providing scaffolds is a form of guided practice…  (Rosenshine)

What is a scaffold?

In building and construction, a scaffold is an external structure that is erected to hold up another structure while it is being built. After the structure has been properly secured and firmed up, the scaffold is taken away. In educational contexts, a scaffold refers to a temporary support or structure provided by a teacher to assist learners in achieving specific learning goals or completing tasks that are initially beyond their current abilities.

Most of us think of writing frames when we think of scaffolds. My first introduction to scaffolds was the genre frames that I used (quite ineffectively, I may add) to teach students the parts of narratives, expositions, reports, recounts and the various other writing forms that they needed to master, hopefully before secondary school. Paragraph frames have been used for years to help students build the paragraphs that form essays, and many secondary English teachers know that they will need to teach or reteach students how to write paragraphs and string them together cohesively before they ask for entire essays.

Scaffolded teaching of writing has attracted the attention of schools that are on the Science of Reading journey and tends to be the next thing teachers grapple with once they have reached proficiency with the explicit teaching of the written code. Hochman and Wexler’s ‘The Writing Revolution™’, along with the outstanding work of the late great William Van Cleave (’Writing Matters’) as well as notable others, scaffold writing instruction incredibly well and provide teachers with detailed guidance on how to build students’ writing skills. Playberry Laser T1-2 will soon have a writing component.

Many schools are using these existing resources as a springboard to develop in-house scaffolded writing programs that focus on knowledge-rich content that finally, after long last, actually give students a knowledge base to write from instead of just asking them to hammer away on writing frames, inserting their own scant knowledge. Finally (sigh), we are moving beyond expositions on whether homework should exist or if school uniforms should be compulsory!

Scaffolding has always been at the centre of effective instruction. It’s another tried and true principle of effective teaching that has ridden back into town on the back of the structured literacy movement. Excellent teaching has always involved approaches such as the teacher modelling steps to a problem – at the board, providing partially completed maths problems or sentences for students to complete, or thinking aloud so students can hear their mental processes (showing how an expert thinks).

Scaffolding difficult tasks picks up on some of Rosenshine’s other principles. If you’ve read my other posts, you’re probably beginning to see Rosenshine’s principles as more of a Venn diagram than a list.

In essence, scaffolding involves breaking down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps, providing guidance and support as students work towards mastery. Key aspects of this principle include:

Gradual Release of Responsibility: 

Teachers gradually transfer responsibility for learning from themselves to the students. Initially, they provide extensive support (scaffolding), then gradually reduce this support (remove scaffolding) as students gain confidence and competence. See my post on Rosenshine’s 5th Principle.

Clear Instructions and Modeling: 

Teachers provide clear, step-by-step instructions (See post on Rosenshine’s 2nd Principle) and demonstrate how to complete tasks effectively. Modeling helps students understand what is expected of them and how to approach the task.

Feedback and Guidance: 

Teachers offer timely feedback and guidance to help students identify errors, correct misunderstandings, and improve their performance. This feedback should be specific, constructive, and actionable. See posts on Rosenshine’s 3^rd and 7^th Principles.

Scaffolding Techniques: 

Various scaffolding techniques can be employed, such as providing graphic organizers, offering prompts or cues, breaking tasks into smaller steps, offering examples and non-examples, and using questioning techniques to guide thinking.

Differentiation: 

Scaffolding should be tailored to meet the diverse needs of learners, providing additional support for struggling students while challenging more advanced learners appropriately.