Page "Instructional scaffolding" Paragraph 15

Children use oral language as a vehicle for discovering and negotiating emergent written language and understandings for getting meaning on paper ( Cox, 1994 ; Dyson, 1983, 1991 ).

Writing and speech as tools can lead to discovery of new thinking.

The teacher offers levels of verbal and non-verbal demonstrations and directions as the child observes, mimics, or shares the writing task.

With increased understanding and control, the child needs less assistance.

The teacher ’ s level and type of support change over time from direction, to suggestion, to encouragement, to observation.

Optimum scaffolds adapt to the child ’ s tempo, moving from other-regulation to self-regulation.

The child eventually provides self-scaffolding through internal thought ( Wertsch, 1985 ).

Within these scaffolding events, teaching and learning-both inseparable components-emphasize both the child ’ s personal construction of literacy and the adult ’ s contributions to the child ’ s developing understandings of print.

The child contributes what she can and the adult contributes so as to sustain the task ( Teale & Sulzby, 1986 ).