[LIT] scaffolding and cultural literacy

[Laurie Wasserman]

"Those of us who teach in culturally diverse schools, what are we doing
to
scaffold instruction for our learners? What do we perceive their needs
to
be?"

Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School

Bill,
The majority of our school uses a commercially produced set of graphic
organizers  called L.I.N.K.S to help kids with: essays, note-taking,
story writing, etc. The other 6th grade -  special ed. teacher I work
with who has kids who are lower cognitively and spend the bulk of their
day with her, uses Project READ for literature and writing. 
In my academic support classes, which teaches them strategies to read
and write in their mainstream classes, I find the longer I work with
kids who also speak a different language at home, in addition to their
learning challenges, the more I need to 'set up" inferential thinking
skills and subsequent written responses in a structured format for them.
They often are so confused about where to find information to help them
answer higher order thinking skills type questions, so this is my
starting point...On a positive note: When we do open response type
journal questions in LA I'm finding they love to create their own topics
and prompts. The exciting part of this is that since returning from
Christmas break, they are writing longer and with more enthusiasm, which
makes me very excited and proud :)

Laurie Wasserman, NBCT/TLN
Grade 6 Special Needs Teacher
Medford, Massachusetts 
crystalannie at comcast.net