What is scaffolding and how do I use it in my speech room? (and a freebie!)

Scaffolding refers to how the material is delivered and instructed to the students.  Many English Language Learners (ELLs), special education students, and struggling readers can benefit from scaffolding.  These students lack “prior knowledge” compared to their peers.  By using scaffolding techniques, us as SLPs, can help our students learn new skills in a unique way.  We can also train and provide strategies to classroom teachers for RTI or carryover purposes.

Scaffolding means that we build upon what a student already knows in order to learn.  There are different levels that we as SLPs can provide our students while teaching any new task.  We can provide nonverbal cues (such as pointing to pictures or a visual aid), comment/model, ask a question to elicit a response, and give a direct instruction on how to complete a task.

What else can we do?!

• Read aloud a passage before a student reads to themselves to improve understanding and comprehension.
• Anchor charts or visuals on how to specifically complete comprehension skill tasks
• Supply sentence starters
• Provide “hint cards” so students don’t get stuck on a task.
•  Use question sets so students get many examples of one type of question
• Highlighting key words in task directions

When creating speech lessons and trying to figure out how can I help my students complete this task, I like to think, “How can I teach this differently than they would learn in their academic classrooms?”  There are two mindsets on how I decide to differentiate, what can I present to them before the lesson/task and what can I do after to assist.

I try to offer one or more professional development workshops in my building to give teachers ideas on how to use the strategies that work in my speech room in their classrooms.  I show them graphic organizers I use, sentence starters, and anchor charts.  This eliminates the “shock” I would receive during annual review time when I report that my students can complete certain tasks in my room.

I revised a graphic organizer being used in my building for summarizing “somebody-wanted-but-so-then.”  My students did not have the prior knowledge to know how to automatically fill out the information based on a text read.  By giving my students little hints on how to complete the graphic organizer, they were able to be successful with this comprehension task in their academic classrooms. 

Click HERE to access this graphic organizer to use in your speech rooms!