Interactional scaffolding in a first-grade classroom through the teaching–learning cycle

ABSTRACT

Many educators are tasked with the dual responsibility of facilitating emergent to advanced bilingual students’ (EABs) content learning, while also simultaneously supporting students’ ongoing literacy and language development. One pedagogical tool that has garnered growing attention in recent decades is the teaching–learning cycle (TLC). This article presents a study that took place in a first-grade classroom that contained a number of EABs. Working in collaboration with the classroom teacher, we designed English language arts (ELA) units based on the TLC and analyzed the ways in which the teacher used interactional scaffolding applying this pedagogical approach to guide instruction for her EABs. We focused specifically on how the teacher’s interactional scaffolding moves engage students, and especially EABs, in the Detailed Reading, Deconstruction, and Joint Construction phases. We present study results, including excerpts of classroom discourse. This article demonstrates how the TLC can be used to facilitate a meaningful understanding of interactional scaffolding and its role in the TLC.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual students
• classroom discourse
• content and language integrated learning (CLIL)
• ELL
• teaching and learning cycle
• interactional scaffolding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Luciana C. de Oliveira

Luciana C. de Oliveira, Ph.D., is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research focuses on issues related to teaching multilingual learners at the K-12 level, including the role of language in learning the content areas and teacher education, advocacy and social justice.

Loren Jones

Loren Jones, Ph.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor and TESOL Programs Coordinator in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research centers around teacher preparation and effective instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

Sharon L. Smith

Sharon L. Smith, Ph.D., currently serves as Research Support Faculty at the University of Miami. Her research currently focuses on the application of critical, humanizing literacies in the elementary school context with a specific focus on honoring and sustaining the stories of diverse children.