Scaffolded Writing

[iowan]

Does anyone else have a Kindergartner that uses Scaffolded Writing? My son goes to public school and this is the method that they use to teach writing. They have a sentence that they are going to write and the first thing they do is make a line for each word. Short lines for short words and longer lines for long words. After they draw the lines then they write each word on the line. Then they proceed to the next sentence.

Just curious about opinions of this method.

Thanks-

Krista (in Iowa!)

[Flor]

I've never heard of that program, but that is interesting. Many little kids don't relize that langague is made up of separate words. They hear, "Iwannagohome" as one long chunk of sound (like if I hear a foreign language I might not be able to pull out distinct words). Those lines might make them focus on the idividual words in a sentence.

[Montanamarvel]

I have taught kindergarten and 1st grade and whileI have never heard the practice called "Scaffolded writing", it is a normal process for helping develop phonemic awareness and awareness of word length. It encourages students to visualize words and try to see what they hear. The practice can also be extended to letters that extend above and below the sentence line. For example g extends below and l above. This is ispecially helpful for visual learners. Students need to differentiate between letters and soundsas well as words and sentences.
The term scaffolded actually implies connecting a new learning to an already established idea/concept. It is a powerful learning tool that puts student learning JUST above what they already know. This prevents frustration and aids in motivation. Vygotsky calls this the "zone of proximal development", or ZPD.

I hope this helps.

[joycenjackiesmom]

My experience with this strategy is limited to my dd's experience in preschool since the beginning of the year. They are using this strategy as part of a curriculum called "Tools of the Mind". I'm not sure if she is getting the idea that each line stands for a word yet--she is still a 3--4 at the very end of January and started preschool in late August. I do enjoy seeing her writing and playing school using the lines though

[Mizelenius]

I don't have experience with this but it sounds too abstract to me. If children are the beginning stages of phonemic awareness then this would just be adding to the mystery of the symbolism of letters . . .can the children expected to do this at least write words (using creative/inventive spelling) at this point? Are they just copying these sentences?