This document discusses scaffolding student writers. It contends that choice and building on student knowledge are essential to the writing process. Scaffolds should be tailored to students' zones of proximal development through reducing task demands, highlighting critical features, and modeling. Examples of scaffolds include graphic organizers, feedback, and mentor texts. Responsibility is gradually transferred from teachers to students as scaffolds are removed. The purpose of providing different types of paper is to scaffold students through the writing process.

1. Step by Step???
Scaffolding Student Writers

2. About Me
 I just finished my 5th year in teaching
 3 years in 2nd grade, 1 year in 1st grade, 1 year
in reading intervention
 Next year, I’ll be in 3rd grade
 I work in a Champaign public school, mainly
consisting of African American and white students
 70+% low SES, 50% not reading at grade level

3. Contention #1
Choice and student agency are an
essential part of the writing process.

4. Time to Try On Your Own…
 Grab a few pieces or one piece of writing paper
 Do any sort of writing with the paper you have
chosen
 You may work with someone sitting by you if you
would like

5. Contention #2
Writing teachers should constantly take
what their students already know and build
upon that knowledge to further guide their
instruction towards deeper understandings
of writing and its process.

6. The Zone of Proximal Development
 Vygotsky’s ZPD (1978) is often linked to the idea of
scaffolding
 ZPD is the difference what a student can do without
help and what they can accomplish with help
 “with scaffolding, students’ potential is far beyond
what it would be without” (Benko, 2012, p. 292)
 Forms of instruction that can help students move through
their ZPD

7. Contention #3
In order to make scaffolds useful and
meaningful, we need to know our students.
Not all scaffolds will work and it is a
constant trial-and-error process. There is
no full proof method which will work.

8. Instructional Scaffolds
 Scaffolds are created for tasks which may be beyond
what a student can do independently
 Things to consider when creating instructional
scaffolds (Langer & Applebee, 1986):
 Appropriateness: considering what a student already
knows and moving students beyond (to the next step)
 Ownership: allow students the opportunity to create
something authentic and of their own interest, not just out
of compliance

9. Instructional Scaffolds, cont.
 Ways to structure scaffolds (Wood et al., 1976):
 Reduce degrees of freedom: simplify the demands of the
task and perfect components before taking on the whole
 Mark critical features: find points of confusion for students
and guide them through those points of confusion
 Direction maintenance: guide students in the right
direction when they are distracted or stop making
progress
 Demonstration: model ways to help students move along
in their writing

10. More Examples of Scaffolding
 The 5-paragraph essay and other graphic organizers
 Feedback/Conferencing
 Mini-lessons
 Strategy groups
 Modeling
 Mentor texts
 Writing and sharing with students

11. The Transfer of Responsibility
 Teachers begin with a high degree of responsibility
(consider constant modeling of a skill or task)
 Over time, there is a gradual release and the
responsibility is transferred over to the student
 “In their instructional practices, teachers too often
forget to let the scaffolding self-destruct.” (Langer &
Applebee, 1986, p. 188)

12. Discussion
 What do you think the purpose of the previous types
of paper you used was?
 How could they be seen as a scaffold for students?

13. In my classroom…
 For each of my writing units, I develop different types
of paper to help scaffold my students in the writing
process
 I never force them to have to use a certain type of
paper, but I give them the opportunity the choose the
type of paper that best fits the writing they are
producing

14. Thinking about Your Own Classroom…
 Think of one writing activity you do in your classroom
that could benefit from a design scaffold
 How would the design look and how would it provide
both choice and guidance to your students?

15. Further Considerations
 What if students were able to co-construct different
types of paper with me?
 What if students were able to construct paper of their
own?

16. References
Applebee, A. N. & Langer, J. (1987). How writing
shapes thinking: A study of teaching and learning.
Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers English.
Benko, S. L. (2012). Scaffolding: An ongoing process
to support adolescent writing development. Journal
of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(4), 291-300.
Dorn, L. J. & Soffos, C. (2001). Scaffolding young
writers: A writers’ workshop approach. Portland, ME:
Stenhouse Publishers.
Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of
tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child
Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines,
17(2), 89-100.