Mod 8 Discussion: Tiering and Scaffolding in My Classroom

I love to utilize thinking out-loud as it is a great modeling tool and allows me to slowly hand over the task to the students as they get involved. I also like reciprocal Teaching as it is so often a great tool since the students take responsibility for their learning. Many students find it so exciting to teach another and it solidifies their learning, and for the one still in the student role it can be beneficial to hear the info from another source.  One way that I like to adapt it is to play the student role and make easy mistakes with the groups for them to correct me on. In my classroom we have what is called skill-offs where the students choose a bench mark that they feel most confident in and create a micro lesson on it with an assessment for the classmates. The benchmark experts also show off a classroom task that they are proud of or they have even used one to show common mistakes that they have done in class recently. Students get so excited for this and I have even had grade levels specifically challenge another grade level of who can be the best teachers during a skill off.