The document provides guidance for tutors on how to scaffold assessments for students who need urgent help completing an assignment that is due the next day. It recommends establishing the task demands, planning what the student must do, scaffolding the next step, monitoring progress, and communicating with the student and teachers. A multi-step process is outlined that involves reading the task, creating a checklist, developing a timeline, providing examples, gathering ideas, composition assistance, and discussing next steps. Scaffolds like annotated texts, word banks, mind maps and column guides are suggested to help students through each part of the process.

1. Contingent Scaffolding:
Supporting Assessments
Refugee Action Support Tutor Training
27 February 2009

3. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ...

4. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!

5. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!

6. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:

7. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish

8. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish
Plan

9. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish
Plan
Scaffold

10. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish
Plan
Scaffold
Monitor

11. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish
Plan
Scaffold
Monitor
Communicate

12. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish
Plan
Scaffold
Monitor
Communicate

13. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan
Scaffold
Monitor
Communicate

14. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan what the students must do
Scaffold
Monitor
Communicate

15. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan what the students must do
Scaffold the next step
Monitor
Communicate

16. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan what the students must do
Scaffold the next step
Monitor student’s progress
Communicate

17. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan what the students must do
Scaffold the next step
Monitor student’s progress
Communicate to Student and

18. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan what the students must do
Scaffold the next step
Monitor student’s progress
Communicate to Student and
Coordinating Teachers what
must be done next

19. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING

20. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)

21. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands

22. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands
STEP #3: Create an action plan / timeline

23. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands
STEP #3: Create an action plan / timeline
STEP #4: Provide examples of finished products to annotate (if available)

24. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands
STEP #3: Create an action plan / timeline
STEP #4: Provide examples of finished products to annotate (if available)
STEP #5: Provide scaffold that allow students to gather ideas and info

25. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands
STEP #3: Create an action plan / timeline
STEP #4: Provide examples of finished products to annotate (if available)
STEP #5: Provide scaffold that allow students to gather ideas and info
STEP #6: Scaffold, monitor, contribute to student’s composition

26. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands
STEP #3: Create an action plan / timeline
STEP #4: Provide examples of finished products to annotate (if available)
STEP #5: Provide scaffold that allow students to gather ideas and info
STEP #6: Scaffold, monitor, contribute to student’s composition
STEP #7: Discuss next step (return to and revise the checklist)

27. STEPS TO CONTINGENT SCAFFOLDING
STEP #1: Read the question or assessment task with student(s)
STEP #2: Create a checklist of the task demands
STEP #3: Create an action plan / timeline
STEP #4: Provide examples of finished products to annotate (if available)
STEP #5: Provide scaffold that allow students to gather ideas and info
STEP #6: Scaffold, monitor, contribute to student’s composition
STEP #7: Discuss next step (return to and revise the checklist)
STEP #8: Discuss and request revisions (if possible)

28. Student arrives with an assessment and it’s due ... TOMORROW!!!
DON’T PANIC!!!
All you need to do is:
Establish the demands of the task
Plan what the students must do
Scaffold the next step
Monitor student’s progress
Communicate to Student and
Coordinating Teachers what
must be done next

29. PREPARING TO
WRITE A REVIEW
AN ANNOTATED TEXT
A WORD BANK TO
GATHER SUITABLE
WORDS AND
PHRASES
MINDMAP FOR GUIDED
EXPLORATION
COLUMNED GUIDE TO
WRITING A REVIEW
COULD INCLUDE
A CLOZE
EXERCISE (IF
REQUIRED)

30. PREPARING TO
WRITE A REVIEW
AN ANNOTATED TEXT
A WORD BANK TO
GATHER SUITABLE
WORDS AND
PHRASES
MINDMAP FOR GUIDED
EXPLORATION
COLUMNED GUIDE TO
WRITING A REVIEW
COULD INCLUDE
A CLOZE
EXERCISE (IF
REQUIRED)

31. PREPARING TO
WRITE A REVIEW
AN ANNOTATED TEXT
A WORD BANK TO
GATHER SUITABLE
WORDS AND
PHRASES
MINDMAP FOR GUIDED
EXPLORATION
COLUMNED GUIDE TO
WRITING A REVIEW
COULD INCLUDE
A CLOZE
EXERCISE (IF
REQUIRED)

32. PREPARING TO
WRITE A REVIEW
AN ANNOTATED TEXT
A WORD BANK TO
GATHER SUITABLE
WORDS AND
PHRASES
MINDMAP FOR GUIDED
EXPLORATION
COLUMNED GUIDE TO
WRITING A REVIEW
COULD INCLUDE
A CLOZE
EXERCISE (IF
REQUIRED)

33. PREPARING TO
WRITE A REVIEW
AN ANNOTATED TEXT
A WORD BANK TO
GATHER SUITABLE
WORDS AND
PHRASES
MINDMAP FOR GUIDED
EXPLORATION
COLUMNED GUIDE TO
WRITING A REVIEW
COULD INCLUDE
A CLOZE
EXERCISE (IF
REQUIRED)

34. DRAFTING AN ESSAY
Sample Fishbone Map
MAP TO
SUMMARISE
d
foo
as
ing
high in protein
rill
kill for bush meat
for
as
ch
go
as
hunters infect gorillas
rill
oa
rt
rill
go
sp
CAUSE AND EFFECT
po
economical
go
kill for trophies government can’t
ex
ls
se
kil
protect gorillas
ill
rea
ns
sick gorillas
sk
accidental killings while at war
la
ea
inc
infect other gorillas
o
while stealing infants
more people
an
Eb
rop
r
need more food
ric
for zoos
Wa
Eu
Af
x ~
|
z
COLUMNED
Root Directly and indirectly,
Effect Cause humans kill gorillas.
SCAFFOLD TO
Gorillas may }
{
y
destroy habitat
Mi
Mi
Af
Af
Lo
miners bring an increase in
and food
become extinct. comfort food
ric as p trad
rc p r d
ni
g
gg
GUIDE
bush meat hunting
i
ng
an ar iti
ers gor
g
ns a t t o
r ril
se to n
ic
inc
logging roads
ind llas
id s
homesick
at f th
rea
tb t e
help poachers
e
ir
ire
se
us eir
ctl
COMPOSITION
e
sh r
ty
sp
me
kil
o
oa
il
a
ch
ch
t
t
ing
n
THE FINAL
PRODUCT
Copyright 2003 IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved. ReadWriteThink
materials may be reproduced for educational purposes.

35. DRAFTING AN ESSAY
MAP TO
SUMMARISE
CAUSE AND EFFECT
COLUMNED
SCAFFOLD TO
GUIDE
COMPOSITION
THE FINAL
PRODUCT

36. DRAFTING AN ESSAY
Gorillas in Crisis
By Kathleen Donovan-Snavely
What will you have for supper tonight? Hotdogs? Pizza? Gorilla? It may surprise you to
know that these “gentle creatures of the jungle” regularly appear as the featured entrée at
many a meal served near the African rainforest. That isn’t the only problem that haunts
gorillas lately. The combined threats posed by hunters, loggers, and disease are eliminating
MAP TO
large numbers of gorillas in central and West Africa. The future of gorillas in the wild is at
risk.
SUMMARISE
1.
Gorilla meat is a dietary staple for nearly 12 million people who live near the rainforests of
CAUSE AND EFFECT
central and West Africa. Some Africans prefer bush meat, such as gorilla, because it
provides an economical source of daily protein. Poor families without the means to
purchase food at the market travel a short distance to the rainforest to get bush meat. Their
only expense is the cost of ammunition and the fee to rent a gun. Some of these same
COLUMNED
families raise chickens and goats, but do not eat them. Instead, they sell the animals for the
cash they need for buying supplies. Africa’s population is increasing rapidly, along with its
demand for bush meat. If nothing changes, primatologists fear that gorillas may become
extinct in the next thirty years.
SCAFFOLD TO
2.
Moving away from one’s childhood home sometimes leaves us longing for familiar places
GUIDE
and traditions. Naturally, the African families who move away from their original
rainforest homes struggle with these feelings of sadness and displacement. Now living in
villages and cities, they eat bush meat to feel closer to the past and to their old way of life.
COMPOSITION
For them, gorilla feeds the body and the soul as well. This custom brings little comfort to
endangered gorillas, whose females produce only one offspring every five to seven years. It
is easy to see why gorillas are being killed faster than they can reproduce.
THE FINAL
3.
While Africans plunder the gorilla population, they are not the only ones. Over the years,
their European neighbors have developed a taste for exotic bush meat as a status symbol.
PRODUCT
Trophy hunters value gorillas for their collectable heads and hands. Finally, some hunters
persist in the decades-long practice of trapping young gorillas to sell to zoos and private
citizens across the world. When mature members of the gorilla troop try to defend an
infant, hunters shoot to preserve their prize. Entire troops of gorillas have perished this
way. The international gorilla trade continues even though it is illegal, since the laws are
nearly impossible to enforce. Gorilla populations continue to decline.

37. THE TASK
Each of you has a set of student
case studies

38. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
Each of you has a set of student
case studies

39. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
• select a case study
Each of you has a set of student
case studies

40. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
• select a case study
Each of you has a set of student
•identify one task the students
case studies
must do urgently

41. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
• select a case study
Each of you has a set of student
•identify one task the students
case studies
must do urgently

42. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
• select a case study
Each of you has a set of student
•identify one task the students
case studies
must do urgently
•discuss the demands of the
task and the issues the
student(s) might face

43. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
• select a case study
Each of you has a set of student
•identify one task the students
case studies
must do urgently
•discuss the demands of the
task and the issues the
student(s) might face
• sequence a checklist that the
task is asking the student to
accomplish

44. As a group I would like you to:
THE TASK
• select a case study
Each of you has a set of student
•identify one task the students
case studies
must do urgently
•discuss the demands of the
task and the issues the
student(s) might face
• sequence a checklist that the
task is asking the student to
accomplish
•develop activities and
scaffolds which would help
you guide the student(s)

46. To do

47. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;

48. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;

49. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;

50. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;

51. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;

52. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;
build communication by requiring reflective thinking;

53. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;
build communication by requiring reflective thinking;
focus on both process and product, thus modeling behaviors;

54. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;
build communication by requiring reflective thinking;
focus on both process and product, thus modeling behaviors;
model the conventions of texts through both scaffolding and spoken
interaction;

55. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;
build communication by requiring reflective thinking;
focus on both process and product, thus modeling behaviors;
model the conventions of texts through both scaffolding and spoken
interaction;
contextualise new communication forms through group problem solving, role
playing and group construction of text (e.g. a poster or news article);

56. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;
build communication by requiring reflective thinking;
focus on both process and product, thus modeling behaviors;
model the conventions of texts through both scaffolding and spoken
interaction;
contextualise new communication forms through group problem solving, role
playing and group construction of text (e.g. a poster or news article);
balance group and individual tasks;

57. To do
work within a student’s zone of proximal development;
focus on long-term gradual development, knowing students’ strengths,
weaknesses and learning styles;
learn to effectively scaffold the conventions of communication;
build communication through practice;
build communication through revising communication;
build communication by requiring reflective thinking;
focus on both process and product, thus modeling behaviors;
model the conventions of texts through both scaffolding and spoken
interaction;
contextualise new communication forms through group problem solving, role
playing and group construction of text (e.g. a poster or news article);
balance group and individual tasks;
renegotiate outcomes so that the essential skills and knowledge are achieved.

59. What to avoid

60. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;

61. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;

62. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;
focus on the product without any reflection on the language choices and
form;

63. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;
focus on the product without any reflection on the language choices and
form;
focus the students’ attention on the rules/conventions but not reinforcing the
conventions through regular written and spoken practice;

64. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;
focus on the product without any reflection on the language choices and
form;
focus the students’ attention on the rules/conventions but not reinforcing the
conventions through regular written and spoken practice;
co-write a task with the student, when the student fails to see the pattern
and process in the communication;

65. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;
focus on the product without any reflection on the language choices and
form;
focus the students’ attention on the rules/conventions but not reinforcing the
conventions through regular written and spoken practice;
co-write a task with the student, when the student fails to see the pattern
and process in the communication;
becoming impatient and frustrated (sometimes difficult to avoid);

66. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;
focus on the product without any reflection on the language choices and
form;
focus the students’ attention on the rules/conventions but not reinforcing the
conventions through regular written and spoken practice;
co-write a task with the student, when the student fails to see the pattern
and process in the communication;
becoming impatient and frustrated (sometimes difficult to avoid);
require the performance of the rules/conventions of new communication
forms without scaffolding and/or contextualising the communication form
through group activity.

67. What to avoid
offering broad tasks without clear product or steps;
creating a one-size-fits-all approach to scaffolding;
focus on the product without any reflection on the language choices and
form;
focus the students’ attention on the rules/conventions but not reinforcing the
conventions through regular written and spoken practice;
co-write a task with the student, when the student fails to see the pattern
and process in the communication;
becoming impatient and frustrated (sometimes difficult to avoid);
require the performance of the rules/conventions of new communication
forms without scaffolding and/or contextualising the communication form
through group activity.
to measure students against a standard that is outside of their zone of
proximal development.