Scaffolded Conversation

Fundamental to Scaffolding Literacy is the way we talk with, and question, the children in our classes.

For scaffolded learning, all children must know and share the same information. At the beginning of any sequence of lessons this is not possible. Therefore, at the beginning of the sequence, the information is provided by the teacher.

We then ensure that the children are able to begin to share their knowledge. We have called the particular way we do this Scaffolded Conversation. Every lesson begins with Scaffolded Conversation.

The format of scaffolded conversation and the terms used to describe it are from personal communication with Dr Brian Gray, Faculty of Education, University of Canberra.

Immediately before we ask a question, we provide the children with the information they will need to answer the question.

This is called preformulation.

We then ask the question.
We then accept the answer with a phrase like "Yes, that's right, and…"
Because we have just told the children the answer we expect, the answer we get is right in some way - perhaps a far approximation, but it is in some way an answer to the question we have asked.
Because we have said "Yes, that's right…" the child who answered has received positive reinforcement. Because we have added, "and…" we can add more information, or correct a misconception, in a way that builds on the child's answer. Note how different this is from saying "yes, but…"
When we add more to a child's answer, we call this reconceptualisation.

We have built on success to add more information, so the children are emotionally ready to listen to the information.
We only call on children who volunteer.
We call on all children who volunteer.
In this way every answer is successful and all children are willing and able to participate.
In each subsequent session, the children contribute more information and we add more. The information we add is always focussed on what we want the children to learn about the text in question.
The children will begin to add information to each other's information, and eventually they will control the whole conversation, always with relevant information.
By working alongside the children, we have taught them how to have a conversation relating to the context and the content of the text. We know that everyone shares the same knowledge.
Every child is focussed on the content of the lesson, both intellectually and emotionally.

The high order book orientation has been written in a way to show how preformulation and reconceptualisation work in practice.

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