Exam question: Tom, Tania and Nilem
Nilem doesn’t scaffold Tom she just corrects him quickly in
order for him to continue reading the story and follow the meaning of the
story. Whereas if she kept stopping him and asking him to sound it out he may
lose the plot of the story and he will be reading for no reason. It may also be
that there are many children in the class that she needs to get through and so
instead of spending lots of time on each child scaffolding them on each word
they cannot say she just corrects the word and allows them to continue, this
may also help with their self-confidence because if they are constantly being
stopped by the teacher and having to sound out words in front of other children
it may make them feel like they are not a good reader and make them
uncomfortable in front of the class. Nilem also does this with Tania where she
just corrects or finishes off the word for her. However Tania seems to be
responding to this in a way of learning the words, as later she says “trus (.) ty
assistant” all on her own. This may be just because she had said it soon before
and so it was still in her head and it may not be guaranteed that she has
learnt it and she may need help with it again next time she is exposed to it. This
links with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Devlopement.
Nilem also does not allow Tom any time to try and pronounce
the words. She models the word “again” when Tom says “ag” this may be that she
already knows that he does not know how to say that word however the fact that
he began to say it suggests that he is trying to figure out to pronounce it suggesting
Skinner’s idea of negative reinforcement is taking place.
Tom says “every will” instead of saying “everyone will” this
appears to be a miss cue but it could also be a performance error as he is
reading ahead and may have just had a slip due to the fact that he is already
reading ahead in his head and his mouth isn’t quite working as fast as his
brain.