Differentiation vs scaffolding

1. What’s the difference?

2. Objective: Lead a healthier life by
losing weight and eating healthier
Activity - Losing Weight: run 1 hour
on the treadmill 5 times per week
Activity - Eat Healthier: Eat a diet
focusing on protein and limiting carbs
Everything is
great!
Everything is
great!
Is a
vegetarian!
Is a
vegetarian!
Senior Citizen
- bad heart!
Senior Citizen
- bad heart!
Has an ankle
injury!
Has an ankle
injury!

3. Differentiation = Change Scaffolding = Add to Support
VegetarianVegetarian
BadHeartBadHeart
AnkleInjuryAnkleInjury
Instead of
meat/fish/
chicken – eat
nuts, beans,
and protein
shakes
Instead of
treadmill, will
use stationary
bicycle for 1
hour, 5 times a
week
Will be given a
calorie counter
to make sure
she meets
daily protein
requirements
Will wear a
heart rate
monitor to
make sure she
is not over-
exerting

4.  “To differentiate instruction is to
recognize students’ varying background
knowledge, readiness, language,
preferences in learning and interests,
and to react responsively.” (Hall, 2003)
 Three Ways to Differentiate:
Change Content
Change Process
Change Student Product
 Still meeting the same objective!

5.  “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” (Benson, 1997).
 Adding something to your instruction to assist
learners who are having difficulty
 Support is withdrawn as students gain
proficiency
 Scaffolding can occur alongside of
differentiated instruction
 Still meeting the same objective!

6.  Differentiation
Material- Instead of book use:
Sentence: This is my red bed.
Set of words: bed, cake, red
Activity- Instead of having students find the two
rhyming words in the book by themselves:
While reading the book, the teacher can ask the student
“which word rhymes with vines?”
Student Product – Instead of drawing their own,
students can find a pair of rhyming words from a set
of picture cards
In an old house in Paris that was
covered with vines
Lived 12 little girls in 2 straight lines
They left the house, at half past nine
The smallest one was Madeline

7.  Differentiation
Material- Instead of book use:
Sentence: This is my red bed.
Set of words: bed, cake, red
Activity- Instead of having students find the two
rhyming words in the book by themselves:
While reading the book, the teacher can ask the student
“which word rhymes with vines?”
Student Product – Instead of drawing their own,
students can find a pair of rhyming words from a set
of picture cards
In an old house in Paris that was
covered with vines
Lived 12 little girls in 2 straight lines
They left the house, at half past nine
The smallest one was Madeline

8.  Scaffolding
Teacher can do a think-aloud explaining what
rhyming is:
“Rhyming words have sound the same at the end.
When I listen to the story, I’m going to listen to see
which words have the same ending”
While reading the story, the teacher can stress
the rhyming words
In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines
Lived 12 little girls in 2 straight lines
They left the house, at half past nine
The smallest one was Madeline

9. Taxonomy of scaffolding strategies
MODELLING (the teacher offers examples that students can imitate or clearly
demonstrates what they have to do)
BRIDGING (connecting new input with students’ previous knowledge, for
example activating knowledge they already have from personal
experience)
CONTEXTUALIZING (the teacher enhances learning with pictures, graphs, etc. or
verbally with metaphors or analogies to make the input more
comprehensible)
SCHEMA-BUILDING (the teacher helps students organize their thinking or knowledge
by creating schemas that are mutually connected)
RE-PRESENTING (students change a text into another written or visual form, for
instance a story can be changed into a dialogue)
DEVELOPING METACOGNITION ( students learn how to evaluate themselves and are taught
strategies of thinking)

16.  Break up into groups. Each group should
focus on a different topic. Example
Vocabulary
Phonological Awareness
Oral Language
Comprehension
 Choose an objective
 Discuss how you can differentiate instruction
Think of the materials, activity, product
 Discuss ways to scaffold
Include scaffolding for differentiated instruction
and the original activity