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If we believe that all learning is a consequence of thinking, then we should consider what types of thinking our learners are likely to benefit from at each phase of their inquiry. This is where the Understanding Map, developed by Ritchhart, Church & Morrison offers useful guidance. By contemplating the demands of each phase of our chosen inquiry model, we can plan for how we might scaffold thinking moves which will enhance our learners' learning.

Despite this being a 'thinking' conference, despite us all being advocates for structured and scaffolded models of thinking, not one group had applied any thinking routines, utilised a collaborative planning protocol or talked about applying an inquiry model or design thinking cycle. It wasn't that we didn't know about them. It wasn't that we don't know how to use them. It wasn't that we don't value them. We had all the knowledge we could desire on the how to and the why of a broad set of thinking tools and anyone of these would have enhanced the process, but we did not use any of them. Why was this the case and what does this reveal about our teaching of these methods to our students?

"In September we introduced the new curriculum across all subjects and all of our school. This was scaffolding using the Chris Quigley's Essentials materials, during the previous year we had used a numeracy curriculum created by teachers within the Deal Learning Alliance, which a great source and piece of collaborative work in its own right, held too many links back to APP statement and old national curriculum levels. As as school we were finding that the DLA maths document did not provide the scaffold for the raised expectations in mathematics primary curriculum, furthermore, the deeper into the curriculum we delved, the harder it seemed to make the teaching, learning and assessment work efficiently."

What are the mindful habits of successful learners and how can an understanding of these habits help us better achieve our learning goals? This is the question Art Costa Bena Kallick set out to answer with their study of the Habits of Mind. In 'Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind' Costa and Kallick identify sixteen habits which when utilised promote deeper understanding, unlock creativity, encourage reflective thinking and scaffold problem solving for individuals and groups. 

What should our goal for student thinking be? How do we scaffold student thinking in ways that are meaningful while developing autonomy and encouraging students to think effectively when we are not there? What would success with thinking strategies look like? These were the challenging questions that Mark Church presented to teachers at the most recent 'Cultures of Thinking Teach Meet' hosted by Masada College.

Alice Keeler has put together a nice sheets template with scaffolded activities to introduce students and adults to some basic spreadsheet skills. Excellent resource!

Maker Ed - Genius Hour - Thinkering Studio Scaffolding for: - 3D Printing - Animation & Stop Motion - Digital Photography - Digital Video - Electronics - Game Making - Guitar - Podcasting - Programming - and more

Model School Library Standards for CA - great resource for information literacy scaffolding.

Genius Hour - The idea is simple, identify a block of time and give it over to the students as an opportunity for them to create a learning experience of their own. But while the idea is simple implementing such a plan can be challenging and there are aspects of such a project that require careful planning and a clear philosophical understanding before you begin.

Similar to Voicethread, however it has more features to help guide/scaffold discussions around media content. You can embed these discussions into a CMS or blog page as well.

Vialogues (which derives from "video dialogues") is an online discussion platform that permits videos to act as powerful teaching resources and the conversation starters. It provides a space for users to hold meaningful, dynamic time-stamped discussions about videos. Excellent resource for educators and others interested in using popular culture resources of all sorts as conversation starters with students...

Creating Short Flipped Lessons.

Grades K-2nd - "HappyNumbers.com is an online resource that brings math to life through high-quality graphics and animation combined with clear, simple instructions and immediate feedback. Our interactive, individualized lessons use a scaffolded approach to reinforce all aspects of elementary-level numeracy and operations. HappyNumbers is compatible with most internet-enabled devices, such as IWBs, PCs, Macs, iPads, and Android tablets."

Using Vygotsky's theory of the Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding, one district moved their Prof. Development plan toward a more differentiated model. Read the article, "Individualized Technology Goals for Teachers" for a detailed explanation of it's evolution and practice. http://goo.gl/BJfZIQ

Using Vygotsky's theory of the Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding, one district moved their Prof. Development plan toward a more differentiated model.

"Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different things. scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and then providing a tool, or structure, with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss key vocabulary, or chunk the text and read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you may give a child an entirely different piece of text to read, you might shorten the text or alter it, and you may modify the writing assignment that follows."

Article on the distinction between "doing projects" and project-based learning.

Project Based Learning

Good new post by Andrew Miller on PBL vs. projects, and other myths

Teachers First is offering an online class about this topic on Tuesday, April 9: http://teachersfirst.wikispaces.com/OK2Ask