Reply to Busy work vs scaffolding in MS

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our eighth grader gets assigned A LOT of things that the school describes as “scaffolding”. As an example, after slides are presented in the classroom, they go home and look at the slides on their own, fill in “guided notes” (like a worksheet to teach them how to take notes), then are asked to copy those notes over again in their own words (on blank paper), then asked to take 12 terms (assigned, not determined by the student) to make flashcards, etc. After doing this for each class they’d eventually have a test.

I appreciate what they’re trying to do, but at what point does it all become busy work? In our case our DC got an A on every test but didn’t complete each individual task along the way, and so can only end up with a B or lower in the class. Yet a kid who completes each of the tasks and gets a B on the test - which is pretty easy to do since anything below a B can be retaken until a B is achieved - can still get an A in the class (because the test isn’t worth as much as all the individual scaffolding assignments).

Does this make sense? Is this common? It seems like it rewards kids for doing the scaffolding tasks even if they don’t end up learning the material, and punishes those who are bright enough they don’t need this much scaffolding. [/quote]

One way to handle this is for your kid to figure out how to make the scaffolding work for them. Can they learn how to minimally copy the notes again when they have to use their own words -- like turn the notes into bullet points or an outline? Can they make flashcards that contain just the bare minimum? Usually IME if your kid can show the teacher that they what they are doing is enough for them to master the skills and learn the stuff, teachers let them. [/quote]

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