6.3 Volcanoes: Differentiating learning through
scaffolding a mainstream homework task
Sandra San Martin
Homework task: Create a non-fiction book about a natural disaster
Instructions
1. Choose a Natural Disaster to study this term. You are to find out information about:

What causes it to occur?

What impact it has on the community/environment?

How can we prepare?

Where do they occur? Give an example of a famous disaster

Can we forecast them?

Can they be prevented?

Any other interesting information
Your non-fiction book should include:
 End papers
 Title page
 Contents page
 Introduction
 Chapters
 Glossary
 Index
 Number pages properly. ‘even’ numbers on the left page, and ‘odd’ numbers on the right hand side.
Start counting from your title page. Minimum of 6 information pages.
 Include pictures, charts, tables, maps, captions, photos (or hand-drawn)
 Possibly include some amazing facts about your disaster
 Include a bibliography – which details what resources you have used to gather the information
Date due: Week 11 of Term 2
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The Challenge
EAL teachers often need to simplify and ‘differentiate’ tasks for their learners. Refugee
students with disrupted education need this differentiation to be taken further. No longer is it
just about the language and its accessibility, these students require tasks to be scaffolded to
account for their specific learning needs.
The task above had been set as one of the homework requirements for the entire term.
Students were handed the outline and expected to work through at their own pace with a
completed product to be handed in, in the final week of term.
For this cohort, the proposed task posed a problem as many learners experienced significant
difficulties with organising their learning and their time. The time management skills
required to complete such a mammoth task were unachievable. When they had been set
similar tasks in the past, some of these students repeatedly lost the homework sheet. Others
spent an inordinate amount of time decorating with borders and headings leaving the research
till the eleventh hour. These learners had, through experience, learnt what the project needed
to ‘look like’ and as this felt infinitely more achievable, weeks were spent on flags and maps
and little else.
Another challenge for them was unpacking the language of the instructions. Indeed, this
issue is not unique to refugee students alone.
Many of these learners experienced significant difficulty with independent research and
often resorted to ‘cutting and pasting’ text from Wikipedia. (Again not an issue unique to
these learners)
The support
1. Limiting the topic
The task was limited to a single topic selected by the teacher in consultation with student
learners. Although this eliminated the choice element, it did ensure that support could be
targeted and maximised. Rather than spending time with individual students on their
particular topic the teacher could develop targeted resources and activities that would ensure
that the focus was on learning the skills required rather than dealing with information needs
dictated by multiple topics.
2. Breaking the task down
Breaking the final task into manageable chunks allowed students to plan their time more
effectively. This involved: reformatting the task and numbering questions. Smaller
achievable tasks were set each week. Copies of these were kept at school in a folder
belonging to each student thus eliminating the issue of ‘lost’ work. A tick box table at the
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front of the folder allowed students to have a visual record of tasks completed which
facilitated feelings of success.
The language was simplified and the questions reworded to make them more accessible.
In discussing the questions, repeated reference was made to the original term so that students
familiarised themselves with the terminology eg. Happened=occurred.
3. Scaffolding texts
As the subject had been narrowed to a shared topic, it was possible to locate and even
develop appropriate texts targeting the needs of the learners. A folder was put together with a
range of texts at a range of reading levels. In class scaffolding was put in place for more
cognitively demanding texts. This involved defining key terms, class discussion to check for
understanding and prompt further questioning, writing and drawing on the board to ‘hold’
important information in a simplified format. The teacher read to students about the topic
and students also engaged in reading in the class group.
From this, a class glossary was developed. Each student defined a single key vocabulary
item and then orally explained it in his/her own language to the teacher. This allowed the
language to be recast and the word choice and order clarified to ensure that they meaning
conveyed was in student appropriate language and also that it made sense. Where
appropriate, visuals were included in the form of diagrams. These definitions were
transcribed on to coloured card and displayed on a word wall for the duration of the topic
providing sustained visual supports.
4. Catering for experiential and visual learning needs
Many of these learners prefer an experiential, hands-on approach to learning. This engages
students and also allows them to partake in a shared experience from which language can be
built. In this instance, students watched volcanoes exploding on Youtube, made clay
volcanoes with erupting lava which were then labelled and also participated in excursions to
an exhibition on Pompeii and IMAX. This allowed learners to come a little closer to
understanding the realities of volcanoes and eruptions and also maintained their interest and
engagement.
This experiential approach was always followed by discussion and oral language activities
so that students were able to build their understanding and negotiate meanings through
questioning. This also allows students to use the language they will then use in their writing.
The approach illustrated
To address the question ‘How is a volcano formed?’ the following steps were taken.
1. First, the language of the question was discussed with a specific focus on formed,
explained to simply mean ‘made’.
2. A couple of videos on volcano formation were watched on ‘Youtube’ on the
electronic whiteboard. Students were given paper to make notes. The clip was
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paused to discuss what was happening at different moments and there was a particular
focus given to the important terminology.
3. Students then read a teacher selected text on the process highlighting any terms they
did not understand.
4. Students discussed the process using gesturing and body language to assist in their
explanations. They used their hands or lego blocks to demonstrate two tectonic plates
colliding.
5. They explained the process to the teacher who clarified and recast their language.
6. Students were given a sheet that was divided into four and numbered and they were
asked to draw the different stages of formation. They were encouraged to use arrows
and symbols accompanied by key terms to illustrate the process.
7. Students then wrote a sentence to accompany each diagram.
This approach allowed for the students to understand the process, clarify any misconceptions,
use their own language and own the end product.
The writing scaffolds
Students at this level can be daunted by open ended tasks. They need to know how long the
response should be and they need lines to write on. Further scaffolding can be provided
through joint construction, provision of vocabulary, sentence beginnings according to need,
visual supports etc.
1. How is a volcano formed?
Draw four different stages and write a sentence. You can label the diagrams.
Key words: magma gases plates rocks lava collide melts erupts
1. …
2.
3.
4
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2.
What does it do to the landscape, buildings, animals
and people around it?
Key words: heat ash bury lava soil fertile
3. Can people who live near volcanos prepare for an
eruption?
4. Where are most of the volcanoes in the world?
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5. Label a map of the ‘Ring of Fire’
6. Can we predict if a volcano is going to erupt?
Key Words: scientists, monitoring devices, magma swells
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7. Can we stop volcanoes from erupting?
Key Words: unpredictable, nature
8. Famous Volcano:
Where is it?
Has it erupted? Describe what happened
Date of eruption
Why is it famous?
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Photo of famous volcano
8.Two interesting facts about volcanos
1.
2.
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