Special STEM Section
Strategic, scaffolded teaching does not just happen. It is learned through on-going staff development in schools. Lack of scaffolded instruction may consist of a series of questions that may not be the right student tools for an analytical task. At worst, lack of scaffolded instruction may consist of only assigning reading and writing without the benefit of I do, we do, you do. Carefully taught strategies for close reading and text analysis become worthy routines as teachers determine which verbal cues facilitate students’ thinking and which visual cues might be essential to post in their classrooms for students’ reference.
As the architect of teaching-learning interactions, the teacher has a variety of worthy instructional strategies at his disposal. Therefore, neither close reading nor text analysis should be exclusive in elementary literacy instruction, as neither procedure is sufficient on its own; rather, these related procedures should be part of the repertoire that facilitates students’ self-regulating reading and writing behaviors.
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