Vygotsky and NHS 2nd Visit

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I think that being in my ZPD and being able to interact with other peers and teachers really helped me to understand calculus in high school. Initially, I was able to understand the problems when the teacher was doing them and explaining each step but was unable to solve them correctly when I was working on assignments alone. However, after working with the teacher in class and with other students during study groups for a while I got to the point where I was comfortable enough with the problems, and understood them well enough, to do them individually. I needed the social interactions to create my ZPD that allowed me to grow and eventually understand the material. The scaffolding was present through working with others on problems in and out of class so that after continuing to narrow my ZPD, I eventually understood. It’s also important to mention that the scaffolding was not only a result of that year of class. The scaffolding was created through all of the other years of math classes I had taken.

One example of scaffolding that I both observed and then took part in was similar to the Reading Recovery example in the reading. The student I have been working with struggles with reading and uses different short stories with a packet of questions to practice. In addition to struggling with comprehension, he frequently guesses words based on what they look like or what he thinks should come next, similar to what was mentioned in the description of the Reading Recovery model. In order to create scaffolding, we switched off reading every other paragraph of the story out loud. This way, he got to practice reading but didn’t have to read the entire story and was able to work on understanding the story both through reading and listening. While he was reading aloud, if he came across a word he didn’t know or he read incorrectly, I was able to help him identify and understand the word. Based on what the teacher told me, they go through different stages of this (as suggested in the Reading Recovery model) to account for the changing zone of proximal development as he learns. For example, while we switched off reading every other paragraph and then he answered the packet questions individually today, a couple of weeks ago he would read less of the story and answer the questions with a partner or teacher. As he continues to improve, he will do more and more of the learning. This illustrates Vygotsky’s social-cultural theory of cognitive development because the student learns through social interactions with others. Working with an MKO on a task makes it possible for the scaffolding to be in place to help them eventually to be able to do the task individually. The ZPD is created in the interaction between the student and the MKO reading with him.

I feel as though I have been most effective as an MKO when working one-on-one with students. When working one-on-one it is easier to use what you know to directly help the students that have specific questions. For example, when switching off reading paragraphs out loud today, I was able to both pronounce and define the words that the student I was working with didn’t know. This helped to make the material that he was reading clear. I imagine that if he was reading alone, he may have just skimmed past the unfamiliar words and been left with some confusion about the content. Also, while I may not know the details of every lesson or reading that they do on days that I am not in the classroom, I can use my skills as an MKO to catch up on what I missed but then be ready to help students after a short review. With that being said, I also sometimes wonder if students are intimidated by having an MKO that is not the teacher that they are comfortable with and spend every day within the classroom. I know that when I was younger, I was occasionally embarrassed for an MKO that was not my teacher to be in the classroom while I was struggling to grasp a concept. While I try to come off as the most approachable and non-judgmental as possible, being in a position of not-quite-a-student and also not-quite-a-teacher is sometimes strange.

Additional Comments:
In one of the classes that I was in today, for part of the class, the students were working individually on a vocabulary exercise in their workbooks. One thing that stood out to me about how the teacher facilitated this exercise was the balance of patience and carrying on with the class when there is time for individual work. In this case, the students were asked to complete 10 of the questions and upon completion, the class would review them all together. However, one student finished the prior exercise later than the other students and had a harder time with the vocabulary and thus was behind other students. At first, the teacher said that she was going to wait for the student to finish as she wanted to make sure that he was going to think about the questions and try to figure it out rather than just putting down what the class discussed. However, as the class got closer to the end, the teacher instead had the student complete 5 of the questions and then would review the rest as a class. In this case, this felt like the best solution as the other students were waiting and class was nearing the end. In general, it would be difficult for teachers to balance the need to get everything that needs to be accomplished in class done as well as wanting to give students enough time to get the most out of each question.

Another thing that stood out to me today was how in touch and concerned with the students’ emotional/mental states the teacher was. For example, today one student came in feeling down and pessimistic. While this made him less inclined to want to do the work, the teacher seemed more concerned with how the student was doing as a person rather than with him completing all of the assigned work. When it was clear that he was not feeling like himself today, the teacher made an effort to go over and check in on him and what was going on in his life. I feel like teachers like this that recognize that there is a lot going on outside of the classroom that may be affecting students in the classroom are so important. When students feel heard and seen it helps to show them that there are adults who care about them and their success. While this isn’t possible in every classroom, because the classroom I am tutoring in is much smaller than usual, the teacher has the ability to do this.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by Tonja Clay.

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