Support every student by breaking learning up into chunks and providing a concrete structure for each.

Let’s start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and then read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you might give a child an entirely different piece of text to read, or shorten the text or alter it, or modify the writing assignment that follows.

Simply put, scaffolding is what you do first with kids. For those students who are still struggling, you may need to differentiate by modifying an assignment or making accommodations like choosing a more accessible text or assigning an alternative project.

Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common, though. In order to meet students where they are and appropriately scaffold a lesson or differentiate instruction, you have to know the individual and collective zone of proximal development (ZPD) of your learners. Education researcher Eileen Raymond says, “The ZPD is the distance between what children can do by themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance.”

So let’s get to some scaffolding strategies you may or may not have tried yet. Or perhaps you’ve not used them in some time and need a gentle reminder on how awesome and helpful they can be when it comes to student learning.

1. SHOW AND TELL

2. TAP INTO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

3. GIVE TIME TO TALK

4. PRE-TEACH VOCABULARY

5. USE VISUAL AIDS

6. PAUSE, ASK QUESTIONS, PAUSE, REVIEW

Reference: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber?fbclid=IwAR1jV6EadGXWU0iR2BOA6kUtckkQpEqP4DPkYgziyX_MtUjkpVKoYblZ_Hk