Scaffolding and support for special education students, English language learners, and struggling readers:
These stories are presented as a whole class read-aloud and the special education students, ELLs, and struggling readers can be supported by
hearing the story read fluently and with prosody. The teacher will pose several text dependent questions, as well as give students an opportunity to
ask questions and participate in a discussion of the story. The teacher will give time for students to talk in partnerships or in small groups about the
questions (accountable talk). This gives students opportunities to hear other perspectives and ask questions in small group settings. The structure
for the students’ partnerships can be strategically orchestrated to incorporate strong readers that can collaborate with at-risk readers. The questions
posed by students and the discussion that follows will allow students time to process and comprehend the story. These students could also benefit
from a small group discussion of the story to be sure vocabulary words are understood and there are no misunderstandings about the story.
The students may need additional support with the writing prompt. In small groups, students can talk about the qualities of friendship that both
books exhibit and create a graphic organizer (T chart) with these qualities. After discussing orally, I would encourage students to choose which story
they think exhibit the best qualities of friendship. The students can use this graphic organizer to write their opinion paper. If students are struggling
with this, the prompt could be constructed as an interactive writing prompt with the students and teacher.
