Understanding and using Vygotsky’s ideas can provide teachers and librarians with guidelines for helping children improve their understanding of children’s literature. For example, in their analysis of the suggestions for scaffolding that emerge from Vygotsky’s theory and re- search, Berk and Winsler (1995) detail a method such as the following for helping struggling readers. A middle-school teacher organizes a learning group in which each member takes a turn leading a discussion that assists children in understanding the text that they are reading. In our example, the teacher and students are reading Chris Lynch’s Gold Dust. The teacher’s role is to facilitate scaffolding, that is, to encourage all the children to participate in the discussion. Four cognitive strategies are involved: questioning, summarizing, clarifying, and predicting. Initially, the teacher explains and models the strategies to bolster the children’s confidence and participation in the discussion. Here is an example of the process. •Questioning. First the teacher, and then a reader, asks questions about the story’s con- tent. What is the setting? (Boston,1975.) How important is the setting to the story? (It is a time of racial unrest in Boston.) Who are the main characters (the protagonists)? (Richard, an outgoing white boy, who takes Napoleon, a cultured black from Dominica, “under his wing.”) Are the characters stereotypical? (No. Richard is poor and has no mother. He lives in a flat in a broken-down neighborhood. Napoleon’s father is a visiting professor at Boston University and is well educated.) One of the members challenges the answer that the boys are not stereotypical. So the reading group returns to the book to find an example of how ill at ease Richard is when he and Napoleon are dining at an exclusive restaurant. Napoleon, however, is comfort- able and selects from the menu with confidence. The members of the group then agree that the boys come from different backgrounds. • Summarizing. Next, the group leader summarizes what he or she thinks is the substance of the reading. Even though Richard and Napoleon live in the middle of a racist atmosphere, they are friends, but Richard will never be able to make Napoleon a baseball player like he is. Discussion follows within the group. One reader thinks if Richard practiced more with Napoleon, he could make Napoleon a better base- ball player. Another member of the group believes that Napoleon does not want to play baseball, but prefers to play rugby and cultivate his love of music. The group agrees that Napoleon’s wishes should be respected. • Clarifying. Any confusing terms or ideas are discussed so that all members are clear on the passage that was read. •Predicting. The leader encourages the group members to try to predict what will happen next, based on what has happened thus far in the story. Until this point in the story, Napoleon and Richard are certain of their friendship. But, what will happen if Nap ...

1. Understanding and using Vygotsky’s ideas can provide teachers
and librarians with guidelines for helping children improve their
understanding of children’s literature. For example, in their
analysis of the suggestions for scaffolding that emerge from
Vygotsky’s theory and re-
search, Berk and Winsler (1995) detail a method such as the
following for helping struggling readers. A middle-school
teacher organizes a learning group in which each member takes
a turn leading a discussion that assists children in understanding
the text that they are reading. In our example, the teacher and
students are reading Chris Lynch’s Gold Dust. The teacher’s
role is to facilitate scaffolding, that is, to encourage all the
children to participate in the discussion.
Four cognitive strategies are involved: questioning,
summarizing, clarifying, and predicting. Initially, the teacher
explains and models the strategies to bolster the children’s
confidence and participation in the discussion. Here is an
example of the process.
•Questioning. First the teacher, and then a reader, asks
questions about the story’s con- tent. What is the setting?
(Boston,1975.) How important is the setting to the story? (It is a
time of racial unrest in Boston.) Who are the main characters
(the protagonists)? (Richard, an outgoing white boy, who takes
Napoleon, a cultured black from Dominica, “under his wing.”)
Are the characters stereotypical? (No. Richard is poor and has
no mother. He lives in a flat in a broken-down neighborhood.
Napoleon’s father is a visiting professor at Boston University
and is well educated.) One of the members challenges the
answer that the boys are not stereotypical. So the reading group
returns to the book to find an example of how ill at ease Richard
is when he and Napoleon are dining at an exclusive restaurant.
Napoleon, however, is comfort-

2. able and selects from the menu with confidence. The members
of the group then agree that the boys come from different
backgrounds.
• Summarizing. Next, the group leader summarizes what he or
she thinks is the substance of the reading. Even though Richard
and Napoleon live in the middle of a racist atmosphere, they are
friends, but Richard will never be able to make Napoleon a
baseball player like he is. Discussion follows within the group.
One reader thinks if Richard practiced more with Napoleon, he
could make Napoleon a better base- ball player. Another
member of the group believes that Napoleon does not want to
play baseball, but prefers to play rugby and cultivate his love of
music. The group agrees that Napoleon’s wishes should be
respected.
• Clarifying. Any confusing terms or ideas are discussed so that
all members are clear on the passage that was read.
•Predicting. The leader encourages the group members to try to
predict what will happen
next, based on what has happened thus far in the story. Until
this point in the story, Napoleon
and Richard are certain of their friendship. But, what will
happen if Napoleon is confronted with
racist threats; will Richard still be his friend? You can see how
children learn that knowledge gained in one setting can be
applied to another (“transfer of learning”). This is only one
example of how Vygotsky’s ideas about children’s social
processes translate into classroom practice.
The Zone of Proximal Development
Vygotsky (1978) argued that adults (teachers, librarians,
parents) working with children must be aware of a child’s
developmental level in order to recognize and accept the outer

3. limits of that child’s ability. To help guide teachers, he
introduced his notion of the zone of proximal development,
which is the distance between a child’s actual developmental
level and the child’s level of potential development with adult
guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers. In other
words, it’s the difference between what children can achieve
with guidance and what they can achieve through individual
effort (Valsiner, 1998). Vygotsky’s ideas on what constitutes
the kind of assistance that should be given children, to move
them to the upper limits of their zone of proximal development,
were general in nature: demonstration, leading questions,
introducing the beginning elements of the solution, etc.
(Vygotsky, 1978).
Vygotsky believed that teachers, librarians, and parents
encourage learning when their efforts awaken those
developmental functions that are already maturing and that are
in the zone of proximal development. The social environment
surrounding children becomes the vital scaffolding, or support
system, that parents, teachers, and librarians can contribute to
the cognitive improvement of young readers in order to help
them rise above their present level of functioning. Tragically,
tuberculosis claimed Vygotsky’s life in 1934. But his work,
because of its cultural emphasis, is more popular today than it
was when he died.