Scaffolding
When it comes to scaffolding in assessment, we are referring to a very simple premise – tasks addressing the lower-end of the Hess Matrix/Webb’s Depth of Knowledge/Bloom’s Taxonomy followed by or linked to successive tasks at a higher level of the same. The purpose of this is two-fold. First, it allows the instructor to better determine where student proficiency breaks down. Secondly, it provides the student an opportunity to generalize the mastery of a topic to a broader context.
This can be accomplished in two ways – within an assessment item and across the assessment as a whole. Standardized assessments such as PARCC or Smarter Balance often do both within their reading assessments.
These assessments begin with a selection to be read. Following that, the participant is provided with an assessment item consisting of multiple parts. The first part typically involves a low-rigour question, while part(s) two (and three) increase the level of rigour, asking for evidence or justification of the answer. The item type often (but not always) will shift from a select-response format to a constructed response format. Occasionally, this same effect will be replicated instead through the use of a graphic organizer that requires the organization of select information, first identifying a concept such as main idea or theme but then requiring evidence from the text as proof.
A similar process is then followed with a separate reading selection. Once completed, the participant is then asked to answer (typically through short answer or essay) a synthesis question involving both reading selections, a task much more rigorous than any previously attempted.
This can be accomplished in two ways – within an assessment item and across the assessment as a whole. Standardized assessments such as PARCC or Smarter Balance often do both within their reading assessments.
These assessments begin with a selection to be read. Following that, the participant is provided with an assessment item consisting of multiple parts. The first part typically involves a low-rigour question, while part(s) two (and three) increase the level of rigour, asking for evidence or justification of the answer. The item type often (but not always) will shift from a select-response format to a constructed response format. Occasionally, this same effect will be replicated instead through the use of a graphic organizer that requires the organization of select information, first identifying a concept such as main idea or theme but then requiring evidence from the text as proof.
A similar process is then followed with a separate reading selection. Once completed, the participant is then asked to answer (typically through short answer or essay) a synthesis question involving both reading selections, a task much more rigorous than any previously attempted.