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Session 3. Scaffolds: Visuals, Sentence Frames and Glossaries
Objective. Design a visual, a sentence frame and a picture glossary entry for one lesson, test them, and plan how to fade them over four lessons.
A scaffold is a temporary support that lets a pupil do what the pupil cannot yet do alone. It is easy to give too little. It is just as easy to give too much, or to forget to take it down. This lesson looks at three common scaffolds, visuals, sentence frames and glossaries, and at the habit that matters most: testing a scaffold, and planning the day it goes away.
Key ideas
Three families of scaffold
- Visual: real objects, pictures, diagrams, gestures, organisers. Language: sentence frames, word banks, glossaries, models. Interaction: a partner, talk before writing, thinking time.
- Choose the scaffold by the language barrier, not by habit. If pupils cannot read the problem, a picture helps; if they can understand but cannot write, a frame helps.
- Scaffolds are for the whole class to use when needed, not a special sheet that marks some pupils out.
Visuals that carry meaning
- A simple hand-drawn diagram is enough: a bar model for a word problem, a timeline for history, a labelled cycle for science.
- One idea per picture, and labels in the language of the lesson. A decoration that does not explain anything is not a scaffold.
- Use real things when you can: a cotton boll, a map of the Aral Sea, a jar of water. Touching and pointing work in every language.
Frames and glossaries that work
- Frames come in steps: a word bank, a sentence starter ('Cotton needs ...'), a half frame, a paragraph frame with linking words. Choose the step that matches the pupil's stage.
- A picture glossary entry has four parts: the word, a picture, the word in the home language, and the pupil's own sentence. Keep it to three to five words per lesson.
- Let pupils build their own glossary page. Making it helps them remember more than receiving a finished list.
Test the scaffold, then fade it
- Three tests: does it keep the thinking with the pupil? Can the pupil use it alone? Is there a date to start fading it? A frame that fills in the whole answer fails the first test.
- Fade in steps over three or four lessons: full support, partial support, cue only, nothing. Each pupil may move at a different speed.
- Before each step, look at pupil work. If most can do the task with less, fade. If some cannot, keep the support for those pupils only.
The scaffold cycle
Visuals and glossaries that build meaning
A good visual shows a relationship, it does not decorate. A bar model shows 'twice as much'. A cycle shows how water moves. A timeline shows 'before' and 'after'. A two-column table shows a comparison. Draw it while you talk, so that pupils see the idea form, and put the key word beside each part.
A glossary page that pupils make themselves works better than a list you hand out. Each entry has the word, a small drawing, the word in the home language and the pupil's own sentence. Three to five words per lesson is enough. By the end of a month a pupil has a page of twelve to fifteen words that the pupil can use, and the own sentence shows whether the meaning is really understood.
Frames, and how to fade them
Frames come in steps: a word bank, a sentence starter ('Cotton needs ...'), a half frame ('Cotton needs ___ and ___ because ___'), linking words only, and then nothing. Choose the step by the pupil's stage. A good frame leaves a gap for thinking. If the frame already contains the idea, the pupil copies and does not think.
Plan the fade before you start: three or four lessons, one step each. Look at pupils' work before you move on. Some pupils may need to keep a step longer; offer it quietly to them. Ask pupils which help they still want. Choosing their own level gives them a share of the responsibility and shows you who is ready.
Examples from the classroom
The bar model
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 4 mathematics in Tashkent. Six pupils cannot read 'twice as much' in a cotton-picking problem. She draws a box '48', then two boxes '48' and a bracket '?'. The six pupils answer correctly and say 'twice as much' while pointing. Two days later she gives a similar problem with only the first box drawn.
Insight. A drawn relationship carries the meaning, and removing half of it the next time starts the fade.
Four words, four drawings
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 5 science in Bukhara. Each pupil makes a glossary entry for four words: evaporate, steam, cloud, rain. They draw, add the word in their home language (suv, suw, ob) and write one sentence. Next day, partners swap pages and test each other for three minutes. Most pupils can use all four words in a spoken sentence.
Insight. A glossary pupils build themselves gives meaning, a link to the home language and practice at once.
The frame that left in four lessons
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 6 science in Fergana. The frame 'Water changes from ... to ... when ...' is full in lesson 1, has the last part blank in lesson 2, shows only 'from', 'to', 'when' in lesson 3 and is gone in lesson 4. Jasur needs the lesson 2 version again in lesson 3. In lesson 4, 20 of 26 pupils write without it.
Insight. Fading in steps, with a check of work each time, lets most pupils leave the support while those who need it keep it.
Common pitfalls
- Handing out a frame that already contains the idea, so pupils copy and do not think.
- Making scaffolds for the pupils with the least language only, so they are marked out.
- Using a dictionary definition as a glossary entry.
- Keeping a scaffold for the whole term because no date was planned for its removal.
Build and Fade a Scaffold Pack
- Open the Activity Kit: a SAMPLE Grade 4 mathematics word problem about picking cotton in Fergana, a scaffold menu and a fade table.
- Pairs (12 min): find the language barrier in the problem. Then design three scaffolds: a quick visual, a sentence frame for the answer, and one picture glossary entry.
- Swap with another pair (8 min). The other pair acts as a Building-stage pupil and applies the three tests: keeps the thinking, usable alone, has a fade date.
- Pairs (10 min): improve your pack after the feedback and fill the fade table for four lessons: what the pupil sees in each lesson.
- Alone (5 min): write your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which scaffold did the other pair find most useful, and which one did too much of the thinking?
- What did you decide to take away first, and how will you know the pupils are ready?
- How can a scaffold be offered so that no pupil feels marked out?
Reflect
- Which scaffold do you use every lesson out of habit?
- What do pupils do when a scaffold suddenly disappears?
- Which pupil could teach others to make a glossary page?
Try it tomorrow
- Draw one relationship (a bar model, cycle or timeline) on the board while explaining tomorrow's main idea.
- Ask pupils to make a glossary page of three words with a drawing, a home-language word and their own sentence.
- Choose one frame you use often and write its four-step fade for the next four lessons.
Further reading and links
Match each scaffold to a real language barrier, check that pupils still do the thinking, and plan the day it goes away.