Moving Beyond<i>Yes or No</i>: Shifting From Over-Scaffolding to Contingent Scaffolding in Literacy Instruction With Emergent Bilingual Students

Daniel, Shannon M.; Martin‐Beltrán, Melinda; Peercy, Megan Madigan; Silverman, Rebecca D.

doi:10.1002/tesj.213

Cited by 42 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…EL teachers can also honor student aspirations in their instructional practice, by thinking carefully about curricular articulation and avoiding over-scaffolding (Daniel, Martin-Beltrán, Peercy, & Silverman, 2016). Research finds that EL content courses tend to be much less rigorous than their mainstream counterparts, and that a sustained lack of rigor has a harmful effect on students (e.g., Callahan, 2005;Olsen, 2014).…”

Section: S P E C I a L I S S U Ementioning

confidence: 99%

From comfort zone to challenge: Toward a dynamic model of English Language teacher advocacy in secondary education

Shapiro

Ehtesham‐Cating

2019

TESOL Journal

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In our respective roles (one as a researcher, the other a program administrator), we have had dozens of conversations with English learners (ELs) preparing to graduate high school. In these conversations, we often encounter contradictory statements about EL teachers. As newcomers, students usually describe their EL teachers as "nice" and "helpful." Most say they would not have transitioned successfully into U.S. schools without EL teachers' support. However, many of these same students express concerns later on that EL teachers are holding them back from achieving their long-term educational goals (e.g., Shapiro, 2014Shapiro, , 2016. Students resent being placed in "sheltered" classes that feel socially isolating and academically unrigorous. They tell us, A growing body of educational research in TESOL has looked at the many roles that English language teachers serve within their institutions, including the prominent role of nurturer/caretaker (e.g., de Guerrero & Villamil, 2000;Farrell, 2011;Fritzen, 2011). Yet very little research has considered how the role of the EL teacher changes-or should change-over a student's educational trajectory. In this essay, we draw on conversations with secondary students and teachers to highlight the importance of a multifaceted, dynamic conception of EL teacher roles, particularly regarding their advocacy work with and for students. We emphasize three themes that are central to this conception of advocacy: aspiration, collaboration, and transparency. We conclude by discussing how this conception of advocacy as ethical care (Hos, 2014) plays out during intake, advising, curriculum development, and other pedagogical decision making.

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Section: S P E C I a L I S S U Ementioning

confidence: 99%

From comfort zone to challenge: Toward a dynamic model of English Language teacher advocacy in secondary education

Shapiro

Ehtesham‐Cating

2019

TESOL Journal

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“…Third, because contexts and tools shape comprehension, a critical perspective can show how planned scaffolds could lead to overscaffolding, wherein teachers assume that the learners need more extensive support than they really do, unintentionally limiting learners’ opportunities to make sense of texts (Mertzman, ). For example, Daniel, Martin‐Beltrán, Peercy, and Silverman's () work on a larger design‐based research project studying a cross‐age peer tutoring program showed how a team of teachers and researchers closely analyzed student discourse during comprehension instruction, finding that their carefully planned curriculum had inadvertently steered students into limited comprehension discussions. Then, the team subsequently revised the curriculum to decrease the amount of planned scaffolding and afford more flexible opportunities for contingent scaffolding, and ensuing iterations saw students’ discussions demonstrate much richer comprehension.…”

Section: The Need To Focus On Contingencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Contingency in Scaffolding Reading Comprehension: Next Steps for Research

Reynolds

Daniel

2017

Reading Research Quarterly

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A B S T R A C TAlthough much research exists on scaffolding in reading instruction, confusion about the construct persists. In this commentary inspired by a recent article in Reading Research Quarterly, we argue for the importance of contingency-that is, responsiveness to student thinking-in reading comprehension scaffolding. We begin by defining two sometimes nebulous constructs: scaffolding and comprehension. We then argue that the dynamic, contextual, and affective nature of comprehension calls for a focus on contingency in scaffolding interactions because the requisite assumptions of preplanned scaffolding can obscure students' emergent comprehension. To focus on contingency, three implications for research follow. First, research designs could separate interactional scaffolding from planned scaffolding so as to directly investigate the construct. Second, collaboratively analyzing video data of scaffolding interactions is an effective tool for teacher educators and researchers. Finally, researchers should consider refining, building on, or comparing their findings with existing frameworks to illuminate both the transferable and the idiosyncratic dimensions of contingent scaffolding. This could also include studying students' discursive moves in addition to teachers' utterances, which might offer a new lens on how teachers adjust scaffolds in moment-to-moment interactions. These implications lay a foundation for a research agenda that goes beyond assumptions about students built into planned scaffolding and tackles the challenges of contingent comprehension scaffolding. R ecently in Reading Research Quarterly, Rodgers, D'Agostino, Harmey, Kelly, and Brownfield (2016) declared that even though scaffolding is a widely used construct in reading research, "there is no consensus…about how to operationalize [it]" (p. 345). Even without a consensus, Rodgers and colleagues advanced the field's understanding of scaffolding by focusing on its contingency, that is, its responsiveness to student thinking (van de Pol, Volman, & Beishuizen, 2010). Specifically, using a contingency framework developed by Wood (2003), the Rodgers et al. team coded over 1,000 instructional interactions according to teachers' contingent decisions about when to give help (temporal contingency), how much help to give (instructional contingency), and what to emphasize (domain contingency) and found that domain-contingent scaffolding was associated with improved reading. By conducting this study across teachers sharing the same curriculum (Reading Recovery), the authors separated the effects of contingent scaffolding from those of the fixed curricular framework. This design choice launches our commentary.

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“…Third, these findings emphasize that the joint enterprises valued in a community can shape how LOTEs are used to undertake these enterprises. Findings underscore the importance of structuring activities that align with constructivist approaches to instruction (Daniel, Martin‐Beltrán, Peercy, & Silverman, ; Windschitl, ). In Ms. Ash's classroom, students had few opportunities to use language in extended discourse, which could then serve as a shared resource for future meaning making.…”

Section: Discussion: Making Meaning With Lotes Across Classroomsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Spanish, Arabic, and “English‐Only”: Making Meaning Across Languages in Two Classroom Communities

Pacheco

2018

TESOL Quarterly

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This comparative case study explores the use of Spanish, Arabic, and English in two elementary classrooms where instruction is delivered primarily in English and teachers and students do not share proficiencies in students' home languages. Using methods derived from ethnography of communication, the study examines how languages other than English (LOTEs) become part of a community's shared repertoire of meaning-making resources. Furthermore, it examines how these resources shape and were shaped by the classroom community of practice. Discourse analysis of four separate classroom interactions shows that Spanish, Arabic, and English facilitated opportunities for classroom community members to negotiate new tools, activities, and forms of engagement, yet not all uses of LOTEs afforded students' meaning making in their communities of practice. Specifically, this study shows that LOTEs can be productively included in English-dominant environments, but community responsiveness to language use is critical for this success. Findings also reveal that multiple features of the classroom community, including member roles, community negotiation, and opportunities to engage in extended discourse, shaped meaning making with LOTEs. This study concludes with recommendations for leveraging LOTEs in similar classroom contexts.

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Moving BeyondYes or No: Shifting From Over-Scaffolding to Contingent Scaffolding in Literacy Instruction With Emergent Bilingual Students

Cited by 42 publications

References 50 publications

From comfort zone to challenge: Toward a dynamic model of English Language teacher advocacy in secondary education

From comfort zone to challenge: Toward a dynamic model of English Language teacher advocacy in secondary education

Toward Contingency in Scaffolding Reading Comprehension: Next Steps for Research

Spanish, Arabic, and “English‐Only”: Making Meaning Across Languages in Two Classroom Communities

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