What is Readiness Level Scaffolding?

Through my research about strategies for instructing ELL students, I discovered Readiness Level Scaffolding. This is specifically planning instruction for learners who can not yet access and understand content independently. Through use of this strategy, teachers provide appropriately designed and timed scaffolds so that each learner can get achieve on their own. This looks different for every student based on where they are and where they need to be when it comes to grade level content reading and comprehension.

Use in the CTE Classroom

Through using this strategy in my classroom I discovered that starting my lessons/content with vocabulary begins to build a great foundation for my students to build on. Understanding the vocabulary is essential to each students' understanding and this strategy worked well for my ELL students. If students do not know key vocabulary, then how are they able to learn the main ideas?

After establishing proficiency with vocabulary, I create 2-3 assignments for the same content based on my students' readiness level and what they need. I start at the top assignment that I want my students to be able to complete and then work my way down, keeping my students’ abilities in mind. The goal is for every student to learn the same content but through a different assignment that is customized to their readiness level. This is one way to diversify instruction for the ELL learners in the CTE classroom.

For more information:

EL Education

https://eleducation.org/resources/helping-all-learners-scaffolding

Planning Template

https://www.colorincolorado.org/sites/default/files/Content-and-Language-Objectives.pdf

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6HUv2eFdLg