SPEAKING OF helping people, I just read a pretty interesting blog post from and edublogger site called "The Educator's Room". My first impression of this site was that it looked very professional and somewhat similar to a news or essay site like "The Atlantic" (of which I am a big fan). The central feature of the site is a series of rotating headlines from the previous few days. These have different authors depending on the topics, but most that I have browsed have experience either teacher, working with a specific tool, or both. This echoes the "newspaper" feel of the site. There are some ads and graphics on the sidebars, so it hardly even looks like a blog at all. I was obviously pretty impressed.
One of the blog posts I clicked on spoke about the differences between accommodation and modification in teaching. This post stood out to me because of these educational buzzwords; with all the practice we have had lesson planning, I hoped this might glean a little more perspective on ways in which teachers can plan to help students. The author, Teresa, has worked as a caseworker for several years before she became a special education teacher. She also has a son with autism, so she is well versed on both the parent and teaching sides of accommodation and modification. Teresa explains the difference quite succinctly in saying, "Accommodations level the playing field, while modifications change the field you're playing on." In other words, accommodations are slight changes made or additional strategies given to instruction to help specific students' needs. This hit a familiar chord in terms of the word "scaffolding," which we hear quite often in discussions about planning and the like. Accommodations may include using additional tools or aides to make the content more accessible for a given student, but the grading remains the same for all students. In contrast, modifications to instruction may merely help certain students experience the same curriculum but in a different way that suits their needs. This includes changing the vocabulary on assignments, lowering the reading levels of texts, or even changing the criteria by which an assignment is graded. This is a very different type of "scaffold," if I understand it correctly.
Though this blog post was short in length, I appreciated the clarity with which it defined and explained these two terms. It was a refreshing change of writing style compared to the often verbose stylings of some of the authors we are assigned in this program. As I was reading, a few questions came to mind in regards to some of these other pieces. I wrote a comment (first one! hooray!) to ask as much:
"Teresa,
Thank you for the post. I am a masters student studying history education at the University of Michigan. In my classes, we talk a lot about scaffolding and differentiating, as you might expect. I was wondering what you think of these terms...How do they compare to "accommodation" and "modification"? Do you frequently use these terms when discussing your practice, and if so, how so? I am just beginning to get more guided and detailed practice planning lessons and assessments. To what extent you consider the accommodations and modifications for individual students when you plan lessons?
Thank you!"
I have not heard back from Teresa at the time of original posting. Updates shall follow.
In any case, I hope to learn more about practical ways to scaffold learning (whatever that ends up meaning). It always sounds nice to talk about ways our practice can apply to students of all skills, abilities, dispositions, and backgrounds, but it is far more difficult to actually plan for these differences in advance and intentionally implement elements of practice that allow all students to succeed. In fact, I'm not fully convinced it is always possible--but I keep hoping and trying to learn. So far, the most important piece of successfully scaffolding seems to be getting to know the students and building trust with them so that they continuously give you their best even when your instruction isn't perfect (or perfectly tailored to them).
It would also help if I WAS the Batman. A kid can dream.
