Vygotsky TIPR
Vygotsky is all about learning socially and that is something I feel is very important in the classroom. When a teacher can effectively identify their students zone of proximal development (ZPD) they can more effectively teach their class by providing scaffolding, using cultural tools and signs, and understanding the importance of language.
While observing my cooperating teacher I have found that effectively teaching this way is a lot more difficult than it looks. Miss. F's (I use an initial to respect the teacher's identity) class is small in first period and the students are often groggy and tired as it is the first period of the day. Even with all of these contributing factors Miss. F does a great job of teaching kids within their ZPD. She effectively gives them examples and models learning for them so that they are then able to do it themselves.
One example of this was when she had them identify points of of an argument in an article. She had one student read a section and then demonstrated how to identify the points from that argument. Afterwards she clarified some difficult parts for the kids and allowed them to attempt to do the activity on their own. She always stayed close as their more knowledgable other, but allowed them to attempt to identify different points by themselves. Staying close and giving them proper instruction and modeling gave the students the scaffolding to complete the task. It was a very effective way to teach the kids this skill.
While observing my cooperating teacher I have found that effectively teaching this way is a lot more difficult than it looks. Miss. F's (I use an initial to respect the teacher's identity) class is small in first period and the students are often groggy and tired as it is the first period of the day. Even with all of these contributing factors Miss. F does a great job of teaching kids within their ZPD. She effectively gives them examples and models learning for them so that they are then able to do it themselves.
One example of this was when she had them identify points of of an argument in an article. She had one student read a section and then demonstrated how to identify the points from that argument. Afterwards she clarified some difficult parts for the kids and allowed them to attempt to do the activity on their own. She always stayed close as their more knowledgable other, but allowed them to attempt to identify different points by themselves. Staying close and giving them proper instruction and modeling gave the students the scaffolding to complete the task. It was a very effective way to teach the kids this skill.
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