Scaffolding With Geodes

This is a working document and will be updated as more information is available that relates to our use of Geodes and meeting the needs of all students.

The first thing you should look at, before this document, is your Inside Geodes Manual. It references ways to scaffold with various learners.

Small group instruction lends itself to scaffolding in order to meet the learning needs of all students in your classroom. The opportunities for scaffolding using Geodes texts are endless. Here are few ideas to get your brain started:

1. Use the word lists provided in the book notes to do word work for those that need it.

2. If students need more vocabulary work, do more front loading of the vocabulary used in the Geodes text.

3. If comprehension is a needed focus, highlight that while reading the Geodes text.

4. If decoding is the goal, let that be your focus.

5. If you have high readers, who have shown mastery of the text, start integrating writing into your time at the table and focus on responding to reading.

6. Have students practice reading and at the end of the week, choose a random page for them to read to you. This is a way to do a Fluency check.

7. There are many more skills that you can highlight based on the needs of your students. If you have questions, work with your coach. They are a wonderful support.

There are so many more ideas that teachers across the district have shared. Talk to each other, connect, and share your ideas!

The more practice students get taking apart and putting together words, the stronger phonemic awareness they will gain. This is why it’s important to practice segmenting and blending.

Segmenting means that students are taking the words apart and listening for the individual sounds. Blending involves putting the individual sounds back together to create a word.

6 fun hands-on activities that you can use to help your students learn these skills include:

1. Creating bracelets using beads and pipe cleaners to practice segmenting
2. Using connecting cubes to physically “see” the sounds being taken apart and put back together
3. Driving toy cars across a word to work on blending
4. Smashing play dough while blending sounds
5. Pushing up sounds by using plastic chips and elkonin boxes
6. Segmenting words with pom-poms (then scooping them up to blend)