One of the joys of the digital age is allowing children to work on the computer, playing games and doing web quests to further their language development. Computer games allow children to work at their own level, and computers never tire of the endless repetition of drilling certain grammar patterns, something I cannot say of myself. We often boast about how children are “so much more at home” with computer usage and how they just “pick it up so easily”. Just as often, however, we teachers are faced with children who do not just “pick it up” and need step-by-step instruction on how to use a certain computer game or navigate a web quest successfully. In our well-filled classrooms and even better-filled time, it would seem quite impossible to give these children the guidance they need.
During a course I once followed in order to become a Dalton-certified teacher, I learned about a wonderful solution to this conundrum: the how-to sheet. A how-to sheet is, simply put, a means of scaffolding children’s work. It provides a step-by-step guide of how to complete a task, complete with simple instructions and illustrations. The goal of using these how-to sheets is to allow children to work independently on multi-step tasks or games with a minimum of extra effort from the teacher.
The first few sheets took the most time, as I figured out what format was the most useful, and what illustrations the most helpful. Eventually, I started making how-to sheets for all sorts of things, from computer games to language tasks, so that children could work independently on a range of activities during the lessons. The first couple of times, the children needed some instruction: how did these how-to sheets work? Once they figured that part out, they happily worked on their own, and all I had to do was make sure they did their work well and give them feedback once in a while.
The initial work of making these guides paid off: children could work independently, and my hands were kept free for the work of interacting with the children through the new language.
Here is a step-by-step instruction on how to make one of these sheets:
- Look at the activity through the eyes of the child. What is his starting point? That is step 1.
- Go through each step of the activity. Every time the screen changes, or every new step in the game, take a picture or make a screen shot. Crop the picture as needed.
- Number the steps, and give a short explanation for each one. Use language the children can easily understand.
- Insert the pictures next to the directions. I have found that using a table is an easy way to accomplish this. Anchor the picture as a character, and it will stay in the table where you put it.
- Where needed, add an arrow to point out exactly where the child needs to click. Or, insert thought and speech bubbles to illustrate thinking or speaking.
- Show children how the step-by-step plan works, so they can refer to it themselves, and refer back to it should they have questions.
Scaffolding towards independence takes on many forms, and this is only one of them.
But for now, the summer holiday calls, and so I shall take a short time off before resuming this blog. Happy summer holidays, everyone!
amyklipp 