1. TA’s as expert Scaffolders
SCAFFOLDING
TA’s as expert Scaffolders
18th October 2017
TA Network
Kirk Fenton

2. Activity

3. Importance of task setting
“There is an assumption you should just know. You come into a classroom, you listen to the 20 minutes of teaching, and from that – if you didn’t know, you should know now. And then you’re to feed it to the children. It’s scary”.
Maximising the Impact of TAs, p81

4. Activity Please put in order of importance when supporting a pupil. 1.2. 3. 4. 5

5. The right amount of support at the right time
High level of pupil independence.
Low level of adult support
Low level of pupil
Independence.
High level of adult support

6. Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do
‘What do you think you could do?’
‘What is your plan?’
‘I’m not sure – can you remember what the teacher said?’
‘So, you’re not sure about that word. How could you work it out?’

7. Prompting: using silenceTA
What are icicles?
Ginny
They’re ice that… they’re ice that, um, like
(moves hand down and up)
(5 second pause)
Hang down

8. Clueing Nicole (sighs) TA Come on, Nicole. You remember sh
I remember, but
Shhhop. What comes first? Two letters.
S H
Well done, sh

9. Modelling: recasting TA What did you do at the weekend? Sam
I went Romford
Oh, you went to Romford? That’s interesting. What did you do there?

10. Correcting
Correcting is simply providing the right answer or completing the task for the child. This requires no independent thinking on the part of the child and is to be strenuously avoided.

12. Rethinking TAs’ interactions
‘What is the least help you need from me?’

13. TAs as expert scaffolders
Scaffolding (Bruner, 1970s)
Systematic support for learning for independence
Reconceptualising a task as a series of smaller learning goals
Carefully observe progress as pupil completes each mini-goal
Asking questions to determine what pupil can do
Intervening only if pupil is unable to overcome a difficulty independently (time to try each mini-goal by themselves)
Giving specific feedback when pupil needs help with mini-goal
Least amount of help per interaction

15. The value of feedback
Blank pro forma at
(Apx 4 of The TA’s Guide…)

17. Contact Starteachingschoolalliance.org Password to enter: STARtsa2018
This will give access to members area including Teaching assistants with all info re networks.