This paper wants to show that Lyricstraining and Quizlet are ideal possibilities for scaffolding. During the last few years the terms “globalization” and “digitalization” have become more popular and it is a fact that the world changes faster and faster. The education is not excluded. Languages have a great value for the students and the curricula give them a high priority. English is taught in primary schools and more and more bilingual modules are part of the schedules.
Other trends can be seen as well: Three decades ago, the teachers have used blackboards and only a few people have used the internet. Nowadays students grow up with electronic devices. The big amount of smartphones is just one example for this. This change can be seen in schools as well, because more and more blackboards are substituted by smartboards and that changes the way of teaching and the teacher’s role fundamentally.
Scaffolding is one example for this trend. The metaphor for this concept is used to clarify the role of the teacher, because the teacher can be seen as an adviser who helps the students to build their own scaffold. Different options can be used to reach this target.
Table of Contents:
1 Introduction
2 Scaffolding
3 Lesson
4 Reflection
5 Conclusion
6 Appendix
Vocab list:
Quizlet:
Lyricstraining:
7 Bibliography
Internet sources:
1 Introduction
During the last few years the terms “globalization” and “digitalization” become more popular and it is a fact that the word changes faster and faster. The education is not excluded. Languages have a great value for the students and the curricula give them a high priority. English is taught in primary schools and more and more bilingual modules are part of the schedules. Other trends can be seen as well: Three decades ago, the teachers have used blackboards and only a few people have used the internet. Nowadays students grow up with electronic devices. The big amount of smartphones is just one example for this. This change can be seen in schools as well, because more and more blackboards are substituted by smartboards and that changes the way of teaching and the teacher’s role fundamentally.
Scaffolding is one example for this trend. The metaphor for this concept is used to clarify the role of the teacher, because the teacher can be seen as an adviser who helps the students to build their own scaffold. Different options can be used to reach this target. This paper wants to show that Lyricstraining[1] and Quizlet[2] are ideal possibilities for scaffolding.
2 Scaffolding
Before a lesson can be planed, it is necessary to define scaffolding. Wolfgang Hallet explains the metaphor in his books. Adults are responsible for their own process of cognition. This leads to a problem. All students are different and they need help on their way. This is the function of the teacher. Teachers support and protect them during this process like a scaffold around a house (Hallet 122). This term was used in 1976 for the first time by Wood, Bruner and Ross (Thürmann 2). The English educational theory describes scaffolding as an instructional strategy or technique. This leads to a misunderstanding, because the German theory defines it sometimes as a method. In English-speaking countries “methods” stands for subjects (Klewitz 15). That means it depends on the teaching context to describe scaffolding. This paper uses the idea of Friederike Klippel and Sabine Doff by defining scaffolding as a concept (Klippel and Doff 182).
In 1962 the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) was invented by Lev Vygotsky. This zone describes the gap between the actual and the potential base of knowledge of a student. The teacher supports the students on the way to reach their targets. The mentoring should help to increase the learner’s success (Klewitz 15). Moreover, the extension of the ZPD is the important target in this case. This can be done on different ways: activation of prior knowledge, support by the teacher, interaction with other peers and teaching in peer groups (Thürmann 4). Furthermore, scaffolding has a bridging function. This means it is used to close gaps by using existent knowledge to understand new structures (Thürmann 5).
This concept leads to a different role of teachers and students. The relationship between them can be described as a Peer-to-peer connection. The hierarchy between is more flat with the consequence that they act like partners. The function of the teacher is to provide support for the students. This can be done on two different ways. On the one hand the explicit scaffolding must be mentioned. This includes support during the lesson. On the other hand the curriculum cycle can be used which means scaffolding takes place in the planning of lessons (Klewitz 17).
Different strategies of scaffolding are existing. Gibbons separates between Micro-Scaffolding and Macro-Scaffolding. Macro-Scaffolding is focused on the planning of the lesson. Micro-Scaffolding analyses the interaction between the teacher and the student. This leads to the consequence that students should have more time for planning and interaction with each other and the teacher as well. The teacher should use a variation of different communication tools and coordinate statements of students (Klewitz 17). Hallet describes three different strategies of Scaffolding: Input-Scaffolding, Process-Scaffolding and Output-Scaffolding. Input-Scaffolding offers structural advice. It uses many different methods and media to increase the motivation (Hallet 122). Process-Scaffolding helps to structure the working process. This should give the students the possibility to get to know how they can reach a target. Advanced organizer is an important term in this context. This means the students reflect their working process and understand how this helps for the learning success (Hallet 126). The third strategy is the Output-Scaffolding. This strategy is focused on the target. That means the students consider which method is important for the biggest learning success (Hallet 127).
The teacher has the function to provide support. This implicates direct instruction as well. During the unit the students takes more responsibility and the teacher is more passive and provides help, if this should be necessary (Klewitz 18). Task verbs have a high priority for this process, because task verbs make the different levels of knowledge visible. The first level is the reproduction of knowledge, the second the analysis of topics and the highest level is the transfer which allows understanding, to combine or to compare different structures with each other (Klewitz 18).
The lesson can be planned with seven different steps. The first step is learning of intentions. That means the teacher names the targets of the lesson. This is important for the students to make the learning process visible. The second step is the definition of success criteria. This helps the students to know how they can reach their target. The third stage is the presentation of the unit. This should help to hook up the attention of the students. The fourth step is input for the students as well, because they should practice the new unit. The fifth stage is guided practice. That means the teacher provides help, if this is needed. The sixth step is the conclusion of the lesson. The last part should be independent practice (Klewitz 19).
The feedback has an important function for scaffolding, because it shows the consequences of the own learning process. Feedback is a process, too. It is necessary to have evidence for giving a solid feedback. That makes feedback logical and relevant for the recipient. This leads to consequences and changes the action of the person. After this step new evidence is necessary and the feedback-loop starts again. This process is also important for teachers, because they need feedback, too (Böttger and Sambanis 115). A great option, which needs a lot of practice, is the peer-feedback (Böttger and Sambanis 116).
The whole concept of scaffolding leads to three important consequences for the teaching process. First of all, the providing of additional material must be mentioned. Furthermore, it is necessary to focus on a task and a target. Moreover, the role of the teacher changes during the teaching process. In the beginning the teacher has an active role, but this changes during the process, while students get more and more active. The teacher has a supportive function (Klippel and Doff 182).
All in all, it is important to think about three questions, while planning a lesson: 1. Where am I going?, 2. How am I going? and 3. Where to next? (Klewitz 22). One aspect is absolutely important for scaffolding which differs from a normal scaffold of a house. The house is finished after the building process. The educational scaffolding is endless, because the process always continues and is never finished (Hallet 126).
3 Lesson
The units of the lessons are prescribed by the curriculum of Thuringia. The lesson should be the first lesson of the unit “Environment” and it should be taught in year 10. The curriculum of Thuringia combines the years five and six, seven and eight and nine and ten. That means the different topics could be taught in year 9 or year 10. The unit “Environment” is separated in different subcategories. That leads to the consequence that plants, animals and weather should be taught in year five or six. Environment protections should be part of the lessons from year seven to ten. Sustainable Lifestyle is a unit for year nine or ten. This lessons deals with the protection of the environment. This module can be taught in every class from year five to ten (Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur 51). That means the students should have a prior knowledge about this topic and it has a high relevance for them. All the people of the world are influenced by the climate change which is a consequence of the destruction of the environment. It is important to show on the one hand that they are influenced by the climate change and on the other hand that they are able to do things to protect the environment.
Another important aspect for planning the lesson is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF)[3]. The students in year ten should have the level of B1 (Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur 49) which means they should have an intermediate level. They should be able to understand simple texts about familiar topics. The students can understand the main points when they listen to a native speaker and if the topic is familiar. This includes radio or television as well.
The curriculum of Thuringia deals with three main competences: 1. Expertise, 2. Methodological competence and 3. Self-competence. These three competences are part of the targets of the lesson. The first one of these implicates that the students are able to understand the main content of the Earth Song. This target belongs to the competence of expertise. Students of year ten should be able to understand complex texts (Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur 41). The second target of the lesson should enable the students in a situation that they are able to find own ideas how they can protect the environment. The students should improve their self-competence, because they are able to work constructive on this topic (Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur 42). By developing their vocabulary about the environment the students will reach the third target of the lesson. This matches with the curriculum of Thuringia, because students should be able to condense information. This target should help to improve the methodological competence (Thüringer Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur 42).
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[1] https://lyricstraining.com/. Accessed 08.03.2018.
[2] https://quizlet.com/de. Accessed 08.03.2018.
[3] http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/CEF_ALTE_Levels.pdf. Accessed 08.03.2018.