Scaffolding: Language & Multiple Representations

Breaking Down Barriers and Giving Access

Every lesson in A–Z for Mat Man® and Me includes scaffolds to support learning for all children in your classroom. Use our ELL Scaffolds with your English language learners to break down language blockers. Use our Multimodal Learning scaffolds with all children who would benefit from trying different representations or modes of learning. Both types of scaffolds help children overcome misunderstandings and promote a love of reading.

ELL Scaffolds

We understand that learning the English alphabet and letter sounds can be particularly challenging for English language learners (ELLs), especially for those who have had limited exposure to the alphabetic principle in their home language or for those who are used to an alphabet with a different orthographic system than English (e.g., Arabic, Mandarin, Russian). ELLs who have greater language proficiency may need more support in vocabulary development and understanding of idioms and figurative language in English, even in simple texts. To support ELLs, we provide ELL scaffolds in each lesson. Our ELL Scaffolds:

• are relevant to the content of the Student

Letter Book • focus on the biggest blockers to language acquisition for the target letter • support transfer of primary language skills to English • build reading comprehension skills • facilitate communication with classmates • build confidence in speaking, reading, and writing in English

ELL scaffolds for Multiple-Meaning Words help children avoid confusion when reading the story by pointing out possibly familiar meanings and then teaching them other meanings that are used in the story.

Multimodal Learning

We recognize the variability of learning. Children benefit from opportunities that make learning visible, interactive, and transferable. Multimodal learning means using multiple modes of literacy and communication. In every lesson, we offer multiple modes for strengthening early literacy in ways that are tailored to the target letter and content of the story. Our Multimodal Learning includes:

ELL Scaffold

Multiple-Meaning Words: Prepare children for multiple-meaning words in the story: can, will, cool. Children may know that can means “be able to.” Point out that on p. 5, can is a kind of metal container. Talk about kinds of cans, such as a paint can and a can of soup.

Multimodal Learning

Speaking: Bring in objects or print pictures of words from the story that start with Cc: can, cat, car, cane, cup. Label each. Ask children to take turns asking and answering questions, using these sentence frames: Do you have a ___? Yes, I have a ___.

• reading • writing • speaking • listening • movement and drama • art and music

Multimodal Learning opportunities for Speaking have children take turns speaking with partners or in small groups, completing sentence frames with words from the story.

Support Spanish speakers in your classroom!

Draw attention to biliteracy opportunities, such as cognates of many exemplar words: coconut/ coco, dolphin/delfin, elephant/ elefante, igloo/iglú, kayak/ kayak, piano/piano, tomato/ tomate, yo-yo/yoyó.