Student Scaffolding Analysis

In the article by K.F. Clark, the ideas of guiding the student to pronounce a word fit with scaffolding. Scaffolding is support, teacher supporting student and guide them to the right answer, not giving the answer to them as soon as they are stuck. As teacher, we want to make student think and give it a try even if it wrong because that’s how we all learn. We learn from mistake. K.F. Clark talked about different strategies teacher can use to support, or scaffolding, student to be able to read a word they can’t read. There are many different ways for scaffolding and they all works. For example, when a student is stuck on the word “coach”, the teacher would support the student by asking questions that make student think. Like does the word have vowel sound and which vowel. Ask the student to say the vowel. Then ask about how the blend/cluster of
“ch” sound. Then suggested to the student that the “c” sound hard not soft. In the end, the student remember what he just did and put the whole word together by himself. Lastly, the teacher support him by connecting the word to a definition so he can understand it by pointing a picture of “coach.” The best type of scaffolding I believe is grouping students together to help each other with the help of the teacher giving cues. By putting a small group of students together, that one or two student who is shy and doesn’t want to speak up, or one that really don’t know the answer can hear what their peer is thinking. This is a great way for them to learn off of each other, then later, we can give that student who couldn’t figure it out, a chance to do it to see if they grasp the concept or not.
One artifact from Readingrocket.org that I really like to work with younger kids who are new to phonic is a Clapping Names game (http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonemic-activities-preschool-or-elementary-classroom).
The game requires teacher to clap and chant “Bippity, Bippity Bumble Bee.” Then point to each child to say their name and clap to the syllable. I choose this artifact because kids love rhyme and rhythm, it just make it easier for them to remember and learn concepts. Also, we make it about them. When pointing to individual child and let them clap and count how many syllable are in their names, they feel happy and boosting their self-confidence. It is also a chance for them to learn their classmate’s name and even help the class bond by seeing that they share common syllable with their friends. Learning how to break up the syllable at early age can help them with phonics later on because then, they grasp the concept of segmentation. How letters combine to make a segment, and how those segment should sound. The students also learn that combining two or more segment make up a whole word with different
meaning.