Understanding what students need to know is as important as knowing

Understanding what students need to know is as important as knowing where they came from in the previous grade and where they are headed in the next grade. This allows for meaningful scaffolding of instruction. Discussing techniques for scaffolding instruction with other teachers is a great way to continue to improve in your teaching practices.

For this assignment, interview two teachers in consecutive K-3 grades at the same school. In your interviews, include the following questions:

• How do you scaffold instruction for your students?
• How do you create instruction that incorporates concepts from previous grades and prepares students for the next grade?
• Do you collaborate with teachers in other grade levels? If so, in what capacity?
• Using the information from the interviews and your observations, write a 250-500 word summary addressing the following:
• After your interviews, spend at least one hour observing each of these teachers, particularly noting how they scaffold math instruction.
• Describe how scaffolding could be the basis of instruction.
• Explain the purposes and benefits to students when teachers collaborate between grade levels.
• Describe how you can apply what you learned about designing and implementing standards-based math instruction to your future teaching practice.

APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected