Independence

It’s fitting that we’ve been talking about our country’s independence the past few days as it was July 4, Independence Day. The idea of independence can be at different levels though, and I have been thinking about my students’ independence. Teens are definitely exploring their individualism as they look to gain independence from their parents and teachers but I often wonder if we’re giving them what they need to do so.

As a Special Education teacher, this is something that my colleagues and I wrestle with often. We give our students the tool they need for success in the form of graphic organizers, sentence starters and guided notes (and some a pencil/pen and paper) but what happens when these things go away? In education circles, there is often talk of “scaffolding,” adding these strategies to help students succeed and accommodating some of their learning challenges or differences. However, it is often difficult to take the scaffolding away and have the students reach the same level of success.

On the Regents, there is a section where students have to write an argumentative essay so I created a template to guide them. We used the template in class the first time, but the second time we did this style essay, I told them we were going to use an annotated margin instead. I wrote out the format I wanted them to use and had them copy it in the margin of their paper. These essays suffered accordingly. There were problems with organization and following directions. So I had to wonder if these showed my students’ real ability since it was mush less scaffolding than before.

I don’t necessarily know what the answer is since it has become an innate part of my teaching practice to provide these scaffolds though I do believe my students need to wean off of template use at some point. That, and bring their own pens and paper.