Assignment 2: differentiation and scaffolding

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There are several teaching techniques that can be used in the classroom setting to promote learning. In one of our lessons, we learnt about two of them: differentiation and scaffolding. The second of our assignments was to think about two activities, in which we were using them as teachers.

On the one hand, the differentiation technique is based on the assumption that there are different types of learners in our classroom and teachers should accomodate their teaching, topics and content to their abilities, by giving them different tasks to reach a similar aim. For example, if we want to teach connectors to our students, we can give them a text about the same story, but, depending on their level, each student will be given the text with more or less connectors. Once they have understood their meaning and function, we will have the students with a greater amount of connectors work with those who had less connectors, so that, at the end of the lesson, all students will have learnt the same concepts.

On the other hand, the scaffolding technique deals with reaching the same aim, but going step by step. This could be applied to the classroom setting with an activity to teach grammar and, more specifically, the Present Simple. Therefore, students will learn the Present Simple following several steps:

1) Warm-up activity: we give students a text with Present Simple verbs highlighted, in which they have to infere the meaning or function of the verbs.

2) The teacher explains the theory to his/her students.

3) Students carry out different exercises to practise what they have learnt, like filling-the-blanks exercises.

4) The teacher gives the students freer activities in which they can build their own sentences, without following a strict pattern.

5) Students work on oral exercises to work on pronunciation, fluency and communicative competence.


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