Scaffolding Writing

Assignments

Joonna TrappEmory University

Photo by Ian L

What concerns do you have when giving a writing assignment to your students?

Take a few minutes and jot down a few notes then share with your

neighbor and discuss your concerns.

Teachers Worry Students will:• Fail to come up with a suitable topic—not too

big, not too narrow• Fail to find something worthwhile to say• Procrastinate, fail to revise/edit• Fail in finding an organizational pattern• Fail to research well—poor sources, few

sources, misuse of sources• Engage in academic dishonesty• Complain about their grades, blame the

teacher and/or the assignment

How does this assignment invite the problems we just discussed?

Write a 15 page paper on a topic relevant to this course using primary and secondary sources. Obtain approval for your topic by mid-term. Use APA documentation. Your paper is due on December 5th. Include with your paper proof that you visited the Writing Center for assistance with your writing.

How can we…..• Transform students into undergraduate

researchers?

• Help students do more than regurgitate (or plagiarize) sources?

• Engage in real academic inquiry?

• Make a writing assignment energizing and enjoyable for both teacher and student?

• Stop throwing up our hands—”My students just can’t write”

The Reality of What We Ask…or What Students Don’t know• The kind of writing standard in our fields

• How experts talk and think in our fields• How an academic essay is built• Who reads academic writing—studies show they

just think it is people who are already experts—this impedes writing

• What counts as evidence

We know that increased complexity in the assignment affects grammar, structure, and other features of the

student’s writing.

“Scaffolding”Wood, Bruner, and Ross

Developed the metaphor to describe assistance a teacher or peer gives that supports the learning of the student

The support is the “scaffolding” which allows the learner to do new things gradually. As competence and experience grows, the “scaffolding” is gradually removed.

“Scaffolding”

“Scaffolding is actually a bridge used to build upon what students already know to arrive at something they do not know. If scaffolding is properly administered, it will act as an enabler, not as a disabler.”

“Sequenced” or “stepped” assignmentsBenson, Beth Kemp. “Scaffolding (Coming to Terms.)”

“Construction Silhouette” courtesy of photowizard at FreeDigitalPhotos.ne t

“Scaffolding”• Breaking task into

smaller, more manageable parts

• Verbalizing thinking processes in tasks

• Cooperative learning

• Concrete prompts

• Questioning

• Providing instructions and/or tips, strategies, cues, procedures

• Coaching

• Modeling

• Activation of previous knowledge

Lipscomb, Lindsay; Janet Swanson; and Anne West. “Scaffolding.”

“Scaffolding”“Breaking up a writing assignment into a series of steps or stages can dramatically improve student performance. At a minimum, intervening during writing prevents students from turning in last-minute, poorly considered papers and gives students feedback—whether from you or from other students—at useful points in the development of their papers.”

Benson, Beth Kemp. “Scaffolding (Coming to Terms.)”

Several Approaches to Scaffolding Assignments

• Breaking down research projects with shorter projects that lead to formulation of the bigger project

• Guiding students into the kinds of research and writing they will do with low stakes steps

• Structuring the assignment so that students are writing parts that can be woven together at the end of the project

The Research Paper….

Ritter (2005) survey:

Found that most first-year students think research is “going to the library and finding books and articles to use in my paper.” (628)

Teachers want them to see research as critical inquiry--We want them to be curious.

Classic Research Scaffolding• Develop a topic/question• Do some reading and searching for

information• Prepare an annotated Bibliography• Write Proposal or Prospectus• Write paper• Prepare visual to accompany paper• Deliver a presentation

Lipscomb, Lindsay; Janet Swanson; and Anne West. “Scaffolding.”

Modulating Difficulty

• Teacher designs easy research problem and provide sources

• Teacher gives another similar problem providing major source and asks for a few others from students

• Students find all sources and design their own research problems

Build gradually in cognitive complexity

Control the level of difficulty and move into research gradually—first shorter assignments building to larger.

Adapted from John BeanImage: http://gamerfitnation.com/2012/06/game-difficulty-has-not-changed/

Help Students Stage use of Types of Sources

• Background Sources: non-controversial materials that provide context for writing

• Exhibits: data, images, observations, documents—the evidence for writing

• Argument Sources: the viewpoints and scholarship surrounding the writer’s writing project

• Method or Theory Sources: reference to the methods or theories the writer is using (implicit or explicit)

Adapted from J. Bizup “BEAM” & J. Bean

Examples—Short Intermediate Assignments

Adapted from J. Bizup “BEAM” & J. Bean

Background Sources: non-controversial materials that provide context for writing

For your writing project on Hawthorne, read this short essay on the Puritan community. Write a short 2 page essay that compares the community Hawthorne imagines in “Young Goodman Brown” with the essay’s historical perspective on the Puritans. What license does Hawthorne seem to take? What does he get right?

Examples—Short Intermediate Assignments

Adapted from J. Bizup “BEAM” & J. Bean

Exhibits: data, images, observations, documents—the evidence for writing

Teacher provides data (or asks students to research data) regarding the witch trials in Salem. Students write a paragraph or two summarizing data and drawing inferences. Or they could prepare visuals based on the data.

Examples—Short Intermediate Assignments

Adapted from J. Bizup “BEAM” & J. Bean

Argument Sources: the viewpoints surrounding the writer’s writing project

How are we to understand Hawthorne’s presentation of the Puritans? Students read two essays which take differing viewpoints. Write an introduction that sets up the controversy by summarizing the points in these essays. Try to do each in about 250 words or so. Do so without adding your own opinion.

Other Composing Activities

• Stage a debate in class over the controversy• Schedule a poster presentation day when

students share the hard data they have found before they write the actual paper

• Have student record an audio or visual explanation of some of these sources to put on Blackboard or a website.

All of these and the short assignment help grow the students’ writing projects and their expertise.

Review of Ideas for Scaffolding Activities

• Use problem-based assignments• Ask students to defend or refute a proposition• Build assignments that ask students to speak,

design, compose data charts• Have students submit drafts, notes with

project—have the pre-writing be important to the final project

• Make revision and peer review part of the writing process

Review of Ideas for Scaffolding Activities

• Provide models of good examples of the kind of writing you want from students

• Work with library and/or writing center for part of the process

• Add reflection of the students’ writing/learning process at various times or to the final project

Think about a complex writing project you ask students to do (or one you’d like to require). How could use sequencing to help them break down the assignment in more doable parts? (see handout)

Take a few minutes and jot down a few notes or share with the group.

Scaffolding & Like Ideas

1. The Iterative Pattern: Repeating the Same Assignment, Varying it by Topic

Students repeat the same type of assignment, varied by subject matter. “minor or small assignments” (close readings, response, experiment reports). Give multiple opportunities to master a particular genre or skill.

http://writing.wisc.edu/wac/node/107Home

Scaffolding & Like Ideas

2. The Scaffolded Sequence: Moving from Simpler to More Complex

Students begin with fundamental ways of thinking, then move to more difficult over the course of a semester. (one-page summary of one source; a two-page summary and critique of a source; a four-page review of two sources; a six-page review of four sources). Give opportunity to build their skills and their confidence in shorter lower stakes assignments.

http://writing.wisc.edu/wac/node/107Home

Scaffolding & Like Ideas

3. Divide and Conquer: Breaking Complex Assignment into Smaller Parts

Make a challenging, complex assignment one of the central activities of your course, breaking that complex assignment into a series of smaller assignments that all contribute to that final project. Students have time to concentrate on and master various stages in the process of writing the paper.

http://writing.wisc.edu/wac/node/107Home

Scaffolding & Like Ideas

4. The Grand Tour

Vary the genre with each new assignment. (book review, letter to the editor, policy analysis). Taps into different strengths and interests students bring. Teacher must help students understand each genre. Teaches flexibility in writing and thinking.

http://writing.wisc.edu/wac/node/107Home

Aristotle’s Five Canons of Rhetoric

InventionScaffolding aids students in finding something valuable to argue—developing it broadly and deeply

ArrangementScaffolding helps students envision the different parts of a writing assignment

StyleScaffolding allows students to write in different styles and then find the voice that is most appropriate for that assignment

MemoryScaffolding encourages writing in stages, thus relieving the writer from remembering and merging ideas at the end of the project

DeliveryScaffolding provides spaces to delivery the writer’s insights in various ways—visual, written, digital, verbal

Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronzebust of Aristotle by Lysippus, c. 330 BCE.

References & Further Study:Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. 2nd Ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Benson, Beth Kemp. “Scaffolding (Coming to Terms.)” English Journal 86.7 (1997): 126-7.

Bizup, J. “BEAM: a Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing.” Rhetoric Review 27.1 (2008): 72-86.

Hughes, Brad and Rebecca Schoenike Nowachec. “Sequencing Assignments Over the Course of the Semester.” http://writing.wisc.edu/wac/node/107

Lindemann, E. “A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers, 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 2001.

Lipscomb, Lindsay; Janet Swanson; and Anne West. “Scaffolding.” Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology. Michael Orey, Ed. Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 2001. http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/.

Ritter, K. “The Economics of Authorship: Online Paper Mills, Student Writers, and First Year Composition.” College Composition and Communication 56.4 (2005): 628.

Wood, D. Bruner, J.S., and Ross G. “The role of tutoring in problem solving.” Journal of Psychology and Psychiatry (1976): 17. Print.

The WAC Clearinghouse at Colorado State University has a wealth of resources to support faculty: http://wac.colostate.edu/