Literacy Scaffolding

Harmon, Janis M. and David S. Katims (May 2000). Strategic Instruction in Middle School Social Studies: Enhancing Academic and Literary Outcomes for At-Risk Students. Intervention in School and Clinic, volume 35, no.5, 280-289.

This article is about scaffolding techniques for social studies teachers that may help improve literacy in the classroom, specifically reading comprehension. After reading this article I was struck how they incorporated different techniques that I have used in the classroom into an easy, well flowing format called PEP. PEP stands for "Person, Event, Place" and is a great way to introduce new concepts while reinforcing previously learned materials.

"For example, if students predict from the title or subtitle that a passage is about a person, the pictorial representation of the man and woman in Figure 1 can trigger thoughts about the questions under this category. The who, what, when, and why questions guide literal comprehension by helping students differentiate between relevant and trivial information available in the text. The 'connect' question focuses on higher level thinking as students make associations with their own background knowledge and personal experiences." (Harmon 281)

By providing different mediums for the students to access material, it can engage students who may not have previously grasped the material. I myself am going to make a conscious effort to put "connect" questions in my lessons. I also feel that by having guided topics, students can start to learn how to pull out the important information from a text. When we read books, I am going to have the students begin to highlight the answers for different essay questions so they can start reading for content from day one. This article made me think about the order of my lessons and reflect on how I can better support my students when it comes to literacy in my classroom.