April 22, 2025 • 18 mins
You’re trying to support every student – but the second you lean in to help one, the rest of the class starts to drift. The volume rises. The off-task behaviour begins. And you feel pulled in every direction.
It’s overwhelming. It’s exhausting. And it’s not sustainable.
In this episode, we break down why this keeps happening – and what to do instead.
IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:
- Why teaching and behaviour management can’t be separated
- The number one trap teachers fall into when trying to support everyone
- What true differentiation looks like (and why it should remove you, not rely on you)
- Easy scaffolds and strategies that keep the whole class on track – without burning you out
If this scenario hit home, you’ll love my free training Turn Your Teaching into a Classroom Management Machine. I’ll break down exactly how teaching and learning can actively reduce behaviour challenges – and how to build a classroom where every student knows what to do without needing you constantly.
Head to the-unteachables.com/learn to enrol!
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
Enrolments for The Classroom Management Lab are now OPEN... but not for long! Join the 2025 cohort before doors close on May 11th.
JOIN MY FREE LIVE TRAINING: TURN YOUR TEACHING INTO A CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MACHINE
RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:
- Shop all resources
- Join The Behaviour Club
- My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
- The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
- Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'
Connect with me:
- Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
- Check out my website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Oh, hi there, teachers.
Welcome to the Unteachablespodcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not
(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not bouncers,
we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, wonderful teachers.
I am Claire English, I'm yourhost and this is the
Unteachables podcast.
Just in case you pressed playand you weren't sure what you're
listening to, I thought I'dintroduce myself.
Today.
I am going to walk you througha scenario.
(01:05):
It was originally a questioninside of my behavior club
community from one of myfabulous members, but it just
resonated with so many of mymembers, so I thought I'd bring
it to the podcast today becauseI feel like you may see yourself
in this scenario, even just alittle bit.
So here's what it is thisteacher in a classroom of 32,
(01:26):
she wants to help everyone.
Of course she does.
That's our job, right.
So she tries to go around andspend time with individuals and
work through their problems andsupport them to get where they
need to be and teach them and,you know, give that really
individualized instruction.
That sometimes really does needto happen, that really
individual input when studentsjust aren't getting something or
they need to, you know, getsomewhere and they just can't,
(01:47):
they're stuck.
Of course we want to do that,right?
Um, it's our job, we need toteach our kids.
But she is becoming overwhelmedbecause in doing so, she
notices that the rest of theclass is constantly getting off
track.
They are so reliant on her orthey're just taking the
opportunity to have a chit chatbecause she's talking to
individual students and notpaying attention to the rest of
(02:08):
the class.
The behavior of the rest of theclass when we're sitting there
and we're talking to individualstudents, especially if we're
doing it a lot what happens iswe're not using our proximity,
we're not using our presence,we're not moving around the room
in a way that is gettingstudents on track non-verbally.
Maybe some of the students arewaiting for their turn to get
(02:28):
that one-on-one support becausethey're not sure what to do.
And if students do become likereally reliant on that teacher
instruction, that reallyone-to-one instruction, they are
going to continue to wait forthat one-on-one support.
But either way, or maybe somestudents is getting on with the
work like that can also happen,like so maybe some students if
it's having a chit chat, maybesome students are waiting for
(02:50):
their turn.
Either way, this cycle, thissituation is so overstimulating
and so overwhelming for us asteachers because we're only one
person, we're not an octopuswith eight different hands and
we can go around and supporteverybody.
It's chaotic, it's sweatinducing, it's overwhelming and
overstimulating and all of thethings I'm just picturing myself
(03:11):
right now in a class of 32,year eight, nearly next to a
student that really needs mysupport.
And as I'm trying to supportthis student, as I'm trying to
explain and you know, use mythinking brain I'm becoming more
dysregulated because behind meI can hear the chaos building
and building, I can hear thevolume rising, I can hear
everybody off task.
It is so hard and then all of asudden you're turning around
(03:34):
everybody quiet, get on withyour work and like it's just a
mess.
It's just so hard.
Like anybody who isn't ateacher, I just cannot
understand the feeling of tryingto balance all of those things
at once Like you're spinning.
You're spinning 50 plates atonce in a classroom.
This scenario here, and justthat challenge in general,
(03:55):
reinforces one of the mostimportant things about my
classroom management approachyou cannot separate behavior
management with teaching andlearning.
They are interconnected andintertwined.
It also reinforces the fact wejust can't be approaching
differentiation as somethingthat's like oh, support for this
(04:15):
student, then support foranother student.
It needs to be something thatwe are authentically embedding
into our planning, and that iswhat true differentiation is.
It's not about giving studentsdifferent work that suits their
learning needs.
It's about doing things withinour teaching that supports every
single student at differentlevels so important, by the way.
(04:35):
I am not talking about doingthings that take a million years
to plan for.
I'm talking about doing thingsthat are embedded into our
day-to-day planning thatactually take a lot of the
pressure away and a lot of thetime away.
So teaching and learning andlesson planning and scaffolding
and all those things related toactually teaching a lesson.
They're actually a big part ofmy classroom compass model for
classroom management.
(04:55):
It's actually stop number twowhere I talk about all of the
things that reduce behavioralchallenges in the classroom.
It is such a huge piece of thepuzzle and nobody teaches us the
connection between these thingsand it just drives me mad
because I just know howimpactful and how incredible it
is once we've gotten this stuffsorted.
(05:17):
So let's talk about truedifferentiation for a second.
True differentiation or, if youare in different parts of the
world, I think you call itadaptive teaching now, and I
think the shift was just becausepeople were misunderstanding
what true differentiation is.
So true differentiation lookslike this removing ourselves as
(05:38):
much as possible from thesituation because it puts a lot
of support in place Scaffolds,you know, like it puts the
supports in place.
We're not trying to climb theside of a building to get to the
roof.
We've got a scaffold so we canclimb up to the roof.
You know it should feel likehaving a bunch of teaching
assistants in the room that willnon-verbally explain and
(06:00):
re-explain things.
And true differentiation I feellike I'm always struggling to
say differentiation.
I say things so quickly as anAussie and I feel like it just
gets lost on.
I really hope you don't getlost when I'm talking to you and
true differentiation.
It looks like supportingstudents who need it the most,
without us needing to sit therewith them and ignore the rest of
(06:23):
the class accidentally or tocreate that chaos because we're
trying to move around.
You know to every singlestudent to support them
individually.
It should empower them and itshould support them to be able
to do that task with as minimalinvolvement from us in the
moment as possible, becausewe've already put the scaffolds
and supports in place for themto be able to successfully
(06:44):
achieve that task.
So differentiation should meantaking yourself out of the
equation as much as possible.
I always know that I've made asuccessful lesson when I can sit
back and almost like have Idon't know my job done for me in
the lesson by the things thatI've put out there and I just I
don't mean obviously I can walkaway, but I can focus on the
(07:06):
things that help me to thenmanage the lesson rather than
try to facilitate every singlelittle thing, because I've
already got the things in placeRight.
So an example of what this lookslike in the day to day
scaffolding as much as possible,as many little scaffolds as you
can create, and they can besubject specific.
(07:28):
So the scaffolds that I have, Idon't have to redesign the
wheel every single time.
I teach them because I've gotthings in place Like so.
That's why it takes so muchless time when it comes to
planning and, you know, actuallyrunning things in the room,
because I've got them in place.
I might just have to tweakthings that are specific to the
actual task, things like writingscaffolds.
(07:49):
So if you teach any form ofwriting, like peel scaffold or
the burger model, those are allscaffolds that support students
to create a sentence or aparagraph in a way that is well
structured and meets thecriteria that you're setting.
Sentence starters you knowtaking any of that kind of
hesitation away from students atthe start.
So giving them a variety ofsentence starters to choose from
(08:11):
so they can pick that and thencontinue the sentence, every
student can then be successfulin some way, shape or form.
Think charts or thoughtorganizers so if you're asking
them to analyze a certain textand you want them to pick out a
piece of textual evidence andexplain why that you know proves
a point or how that supportsthe main message or the question
(08:32):
or whatever it might be.
You can use that think chart orthought organizer for them to
be able to go through the textand fill in that thought
organizer so you know thatthey've hit those steps.
You can then have promptsembedded into that.
You can have sentence startersembedded into that.
You can have little you knowlike where to look, parts Like
you can just as much support asthey need you can embed into the
(08:52):
scaffold.
So the one thing about thesescaffolds is just think about a
house.
Right, you've got a housethat's being built.
That scaffold around that houseis not intended to be there
forever and the scaffolding doesget shed away.
You know, as the house getsbuilt it's not always there.
The roof might be tiled so thatpart of the scaffold can be
(09:12):
removed.
You know the outer scaffoldingcan be removed when different
parts are done and then whenyou've got that final finished
product you don't need thescaffolding there anymore
because it is done.
You know the house has beenbuilt, metaphorically speaking,
with the student.
Or you know they've got theskills to write that essay.
So just say you've got awriting scaffold.
Just say you've got a pillparagraph writing scaffold.
(09:33):
Because I don't know, I thinkmost people will be familiar-ish
with a pill paragraph scaffold.
So you've got point, example,explanation and then link.
Some students might be prettyconfident in their writing and
they might just need a littlebit of support structuring their
paragraph.
So you might have a scaffoldthat just has the P, e, e, l
just to guide them and then somelines for them to write on.
(09:54):
Some students might be far lessconfident with that, so they
might need just like a couple ofreminders on what they you know
what they have to write.
Or some students might needjust like a verbal reminder on
you know the points there,remember like you can start it
like this Other students mightneed a lot more support so they
might have a choice of fivedifferent sentence starters for
(10:17):
each of the P, e, e and L.
Some students might need that.
Plus they might need a littlebit of an like a little bit of
information on where they canfind that example.
Or maybe you give them theexample, you give them some
information and they just putthat into a paragraph because
they're still really learningthe nuts and bolts of
paragraphing.
So you can do one scaffold andyou can shave it back in a
(10:39):
variety of ways and literallyjust delete parts of the
scaffold and then print outthose.
And then the students you canjust pan them out as you go
through.
So it's not about givingstudents different things.
It's about providing a scaffoldthat's going to support every
single student in different ways.
You can also have that samescaffold but extending students.
Maybe you add another E and Ein there.
(11:00):
So not only are they doing oneexample and one effect of that,
they're doing the point and thenthey're finding multiple
examples and multiple points ofevidence to support the point
that they're making.
So it shouldn't just be thereto limit.
It's not there to limit.
Well, it's never there to limit.
It's there to support studentsto every single student in that
(11:23):
class to meet the outcome of thelesson in a way that is working
for them.
You know that works for theirspecific level that they're
working at at that moment, buteveryone can be successful in
that and it can push thosestudents up as well.
So it's not to limit them atall.
So just have a think like whatscaffolds can you provide?
(11:43):
And the reason these work isbecause, instead of having to go
around and say, okay, you'restruggling with this sentence.
How can you get started, jerry?
How can you get started?
Like what can you say?
So you're struggling with thissentence.
How can you get started, jerry?
How can you get started?
Like what can you say?
So you're sitting there withthat student.
You're supporting themone-to-one, instead of you
sitting there and supportingJerry one-to-one, while Stacey
is up the back waiting with herhand up because she also doesn't
(12:05):
know how to start her sentence.
Around the example that she'sfound.
You're able to go around.
Stacey has a hand up.
You're able to point to thescaffold in the exact part that
she's stuck on.
Jerry puts his hand up.
You're able to go over and gooh, give a bit of a thumbs up
and then point to the part wherehe's stuck on, so that scaffold
is working for you.
However, you need to rememberthat any scaffold that you
(12:27):
create, you have to teach.
Whatever you want your studentsto do, it must be first taught.
So giving them a pill scaffoldwith some sentence starters is
not going to work alone.
You'll have to do thegroundwork on that, project it
up on the boards and then modelit first yourself.
Okay, this is a scaffold.
What we're going to be doingthis lesson is you're going to
be learning how to write an epicparagraph.
(12:48):
I'm going to be going throughit first and I'm going to be
showing you exactly how to usethis paragraph scaffold to make
an epic paragraph.
Then you'll rub off what you'vedone on the board and you're
going to say okay, now you'regoing to show me how to do it as
a class.
That's your job First.
We've got the P.
Who wants to come up?
I'll give you the marker.
Who wants to come up and showme what you would write for P?
(13:10):
Fantastic.
Or you'll say okay, jerry, whatsentence data would you use for
the next section?
Why would you use that sentencedata?
Why would that work?
Fantastic.
Who can follow on from Jerry'ssentence?
Becky, fantastic, thank you,that's wonderful.
So you're building that together.
That's called jointconstructing.
So it's what's that?
(13:31):
What is that Me?
I do, we do, you do so.
It's that kind of philosophy ofscaffolding.
So I'll do it first and I'llshow you.
We will do it together and thenyou can go off and do it
independently.
So then you're building theirknowledge around the scaffold
and they feel more confident indoing it.
There's no point giving them ascaffold and expecting them to
know, because we're justassuming that they know how to
(13:52):
fill that in, but it's notnecessarily what they're going
to be able to do, and thenstudents will hopefully well, a
lot of them will be able to geton with it independently, and
that will then give you space towork with the students who are
really, really struggling, ifthey're still not getting it,
and just free you up in thelesson so you're able to feel
more confident and calm and incontrol of that space because
(14:15):
you've got things working foryou.
You have got everything runningsmoothly and that's why I call
so.
I've got this free trainingcoming up and it's called your
classroom management machine.
I turn your teaching into aclassroom management machine and
that's why I call it that,because all of these working
cogs, all of these pieces worktogether so perfectly.
So it's not just about thebehavior happening and then
(14:38):
we're responding reactively toit.
It's this beautiful proactiveway of approaching behavior that
works for us and works with us,and we can go in more confident
and capable and just feelamazing in the classroom because
we've got things covered.
So saying that, if you want tolearn more about what I call the
learning link and all of theother parts of this model.
(15:00):
I'll be giving you a rundown inthis free training.
It's coming up at the end ofthe month, called Turn your
Teaching Into A ClassroomManagement Machine.
Honestly, this session was sogood.
Last year A lot of people wouldbe like I would have paid for
that.
That is the best training Ihave received in my career
around classroom management andit was literally just an
introductory free trainingaround my four-step classroom
management approach.
(15:20):
But yeah, come along.
I would absolutely love to nerdout with you in person about
this.
I would love to spend some timetogether and walk you through
this just the stuff that peoplereally deserve to know.
Like it's just ridiculous thatwe aren't taught this stuff,
even the differentiation stuff.
I remember running that for thefirst time in my course, in my
(15:42):
training course, my classroommanagement lab course, and
someone was like why the hellhave I not been taught this
sooner?
And they had been teaching for20 years.
I'm like I don't know.
I just don't know it.
Just it's such a travesty.
Anyway, come along to that.
It would be brilliant to seeyou there.
You can register by heading tothe link the-unteachablescom.
Forward slash learn.
(16:02):
I have two different times thatyou can enroll in, so hopefully
you can come live, and I'llalso be giving everybody a free
gift for showing up and cominglive on the day.
But, of course, if you can'tmake it, I'll be releasing the
replay as well.
So come along, check it out,and it would be just freaking
wonderful to see you there.
But until then, this week, justgive it a go, you know, just
(16:25):
think, okay, this is what I'mteaching today.
What might be the questions thatI get?
What hands are going to go upand how can I put a scaffold, a
model, in place this lesson so Ican step away a little bit, I
can take a deep breath and I canjust have things working for me
in the lesson.
And if that works for you, ifyou try it and it goes well,
please like reach out onInstagram or my email,
(16:48):
claireatthe-unteachablescom.
Like, start the conversationwith me.
Let me know if that worked foryou or you know what you did in
your classroom.
I absolutely love, love, lovehaving that chat.
This is not a podcast that Ijust want to go out into the,
you know, into the universe, andnever have discussions around.
So come and have a chat with meand yeah, that is all for this
(17:08):
week.
Thank you for coming andspending some time with me and I
can't wait to do it again nextweek at the same time, in the
same place, on the Unteachablespodcast.
Bye for now, teachers.
Oh, hi there, teachers.
Welcome to the Unteachablespodcast.
I'm your host, claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama and a big oldbehavior nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taughtto manage behavior and classroom
manage has left us playingcrowd control, which is not
(00:22):
something I subscribe to,because we're not bouncers,
we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game, changing
strategies and I mean the thingsthat we can actually do and
action in our classrooms thatwill allow you to lean into your
beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and, dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, wonderful teachers.
I am Claire English, I'm yourhost and this is the
Unteachables podcast.
Just in case you pressed playand you weren't sure what you're
listening to, I thought I'dintroduce myself.
Today.
I am going to walk you througha scenario.
(01:05):
It was originally a questioninside of my behavior club
community from one of myfabulous members, but it just
resonated with so many of mymembers, so I thought I'd bring
it to the podcast today becauseI feel like you may see yourself
in this scenario, even just alittle bit.
So here's what it is thisteacher in a classroom of 32,
(01:26):
she wants to help everyone.
Of course she does.
That's our job, right.
So she tries to go around andspend time with individuals and
work through their problems andsupport them to get where they
need to be and teach them and,you know, give that really
individualized instruction.
That sometimes really does needto happen, that really
individual input when studentsjust aren't getting something or
they need to, you know, getsomewhere and they just can't,
(01:47):
they're stuck.
Of course we want to do that,right?
Um, it's our job, we need toteach our kids.
But she is becoming overwhelmedbecause in doing so, she
notices that the rest of theclass is constantly getting off
track.
They are so reliant on her orthey're just taking the
opportunity to have a chit chatbecause she's talking to
individual students and notpaying attention to the rest of
(02:08):
the class.
The behavior of the rest of theclass when we're sitting there
and we're talking to individualstudents, especially if we're
doing it a lot what happens iswe're not using our proximity,
we're not using our presence,we're not moving around the room
in a way that is gettingstudents on track non-verbally.
Maybe some of the students arewaiting for their turn to get
(02:28):
that one-on-one support becausethey're not sure what to do.
And if students do become likereally reliant on that teacher
instruction, that reallyone-to-one instruction, they are
going to continue to wait forthat one-on-one support.
But either way, or maybe somestudents is getting on with the
work like that can also happen,like so maybe some students if
it's having a chit chat, maybesome students are waiting for
(02:50):
their turn.
Either way, this cycle, thissituation is so overstimulating
and so overwhelming for us asteachers because we're only one
person, we're not an octopuswith eight different hands and
we can go around and supporteverybody.
It's chaotic, it's sweatinducing, it's overwhelming and
overstimulating and all of thethings I'm just picturing myself
(03:11):
right now in a class of 32,year eight, nearly next to a
student that really needs mysupport.
And as I'm trying to supportthis student, as I'm trying to
explain and you know, use mythinking brain I'm becoming more
dysregulated because behind meI can hear the chaos building
and building, I can hear thevolume rising, I can hear
everybody off task.
It is so hard and then all of asudden you're turning around
(03:34):
everybody quiet, get on withyour work and like it's just a
mess.
It's just so hard.
Like anybody who isn't ateacher, I just cannot
understand the feeling of tryingto balance all of those things
at once Like you're spinning.
You're spinning 50 plates atonce in a classroom.
This scenario here, and justthat challenge in general,
(03:55):
reinforces one of the mostimportant things about my
classroom management approachyou cannot separate behavior
management with teaching andlearning.
They are interconnected andintertwined.
It also reinforces the fact wejust can't be approaching
differentiation as somethingthat's like oh, support for this
(04:15):
student, then support foranother student.
It needs to be something thatwe are authentically embedding
into our planning, and that iswhat true differentiation is.
It's not about giving studentsdifferent work that suits their
learning needs.
It's about doing things withinour teaching that supports every
single student at differentlevels so important, by the way.
(04:35):
I am not talking about doingthings that take a million years
to plan for.
I'm talking about doing thingsthat are embedded into our
day-to-day planning thatactually take a lot of the
pressure away and a lot of thetime away.
So teaching and learning andlesson planning and scaffolding
and all those things related toactually teaching a lesson.
They're actually a big part ofmy classroom compass model for
classroom management.
(04:55):
It's actually stop number twowhere I talk about all of the
things that reduce behavioralchallenges in the classroom.
It is such a huge piece of thepuzzle and nobody teaches us the
connection between these thingsand it just drives me mad
because I just know howimpactful and how incredible it
is once we've gotten this stuffsorted.
(05:17):
So let's talk about truedifferentiation for a second.
True differentiation or, if youare in different parts of the
world, I think you call itadaptive teaching now, and I
think the shift was just becausepeople were misunderstanding
what true differentiation is.
So true differentiation lookslike this removing ourselves as
(05:38):
much as possible from thesituation because it puts a lot
of support in place Scaffolds,you know, like it puts the
supports in place.
We're not trying to climb theside of a building to get to the
roof.
We've got a scaffold so we canclimb up to the roof.
You know it should feel likehaving a bunch of teaching
assistants in the room that willnon-verbally explain and
(06:00):
re-explain things.
And true differentiation I feellike I'm always struggling to
say differentiation.
I say things so quickly as anAussie and I feel like it just
gets lost on.
I really hope you don't getlost when I'm talking to you and
true differentiation.
It looks like supportingstudents who need it the most,
without us needing to sit therewith them and ignore the rest of
(06:23):
the class accidentally or tocreate that chaos because we're
trying to move around.
You know to every singlestudent to support them
individually.
It should empower them and itshould support them to be able
to do that task with as minimalinvolvement from us in the
moment as possible, becausewe've already put the scaffolds
and supports in place for themto be able to successfully
(06:44):
achieve that task.
So differentiation should meantaking yourself out of the
equation as much as possible.
I always know that I've made asuccessful lesson when I can sit
back and almost like have Idon't know my job done for me in
the lesson by the things thatI've put out there and I just I
don't mean obviously I can walkaway, but I can focus on the
(07:06):
things that help me to thenmanage the lesson rather than
try to facilitate every singlelittle thing, because I've
already got the things in placeRight.
So an example of what this lookslike in the day to day
scaffolding as much as possible,as many little scaffolds as you
can create, and they can besubject specific.
(07:28):
So the scaffolds that I have, Idon't have to redesign the
wheel every single time.
I teach them because I've gotthings in place Like so.
That's why it takes so muchless time when it comes to
planning and, you know, actuallyrunning things in the room,
because I've got them in place.
I might just have to tweakthings that are specific to the
actual task, things like writingscaffolds.
(07:49):
So if you teach any form ofwriting, like peel scaffold or
the burger model, those are allscaffolds that support students
to create a sentence or aparagraph in a way that is well
structured and meets thecriteria that you're setting.
Sentence starters you knowtaking any of that kind of
hesitation away from students atthe start.
So giving them a variety ofsentence starters to choose from
(08:11):
so they can pick that and thencontinue the sentence, every
student can then be successfulin some way, shape or form.
Think charts or thoughtorganizers so if you're asking
them to analyze a certain textand you want them to pick out a
piece of textual evidence andexplain why that you know proves
a point or how that supportsthe main message or the question
(08:32):
or whatever it might be.
You can use that think chart orthought organizer for them to
be able to go through the textand fill in that thought
organizer so you know thatthey've hit those steps.
You can then have promptsembedded into that.
You can have sentence startersembedded into that.
You can have little you knowlike where to look, parts Like
you can just as much support asthey need you can embed into the
(08:52):
scaffold.
So the one thing about thesescaffolds is just think about a
house.
Right, you've got a housethat's being built.
That scaffold around that houseis not intended to be there
forever and the scaffolding doesget shed away.
You know, as the house getsbuilt it's not always there.
The roof might be tiled so thatpart of the scaffold can be
(09:12):
removed.
You know the outer scaffoldingcan be removed when different
parts are done and then whenyou've got that final finished
product you don't need thescaffolding there anymore
because it is done.
You know the house has beenbuilt, metaphorically speaking,
with the student.
Or you know they've got theskills to write that essay.
So just say you've got awriting scaffold.
Just say you've got a pillparagraph writing scaffold.
(09:33):
Because I don't know, I thinkmost people will be familiar-ish
with a pill paragraph scaffold.
So you've got point, example,explanation and then link.
Some students might be prettyconfident in their writing and
they might just need a littlebit of support structuring their
paragraph.
So you might have a scaffoldthat just has the P, e, e, l
just to guide them and then somelines for them to write on.
(09:54):
Some students might be far lessconfident with that, so they
might need just like a couple ofreminders on what they you know
what they have to write.
Or some students might needjust like a verbal reminder on
you know the points there,remember like you can start it
like this Other students mightneed a lot more support so they
might have a choice of fivedifferent sentence starters for
(10:17):
each of the P, e, e and L.
Some students might need that.
Plus they might need a littlebit of an like a little bit of
information on where they canfind that example.
Or maybe you give them theexample, you give them some
information and they just putthat into a paragraph because
they're still really learningthe nuts and bolts of
paragraphing.
So you can do one scaffold andyou can shave it back in a
(10:39):
variety of ways and literallyjust delete parts of the
scaffold and then print outthose.
And then the students you canjust pan them out as you go
through.
So it's not about givingstudents different things.
It's about providing a scaffoldthat's going to support every
single student in different ways.
You can also have that samescaffold but extending students.
Maybe you add another E and Ein there.
(11:00):
So not only are they doing oneexample and one effect of that,
they're doing the point and thenthey're finding multiple
examples and multiple points ofevidence to support the point
that they're making.
So it shouldn't just be thereto limit.
It's not there to limit.
Well, it's never there to limit.
It's there to support studentsto every single student in that
(11:23):
class to meet the outcome of thelesson in a way that is working
for them.
You know that works for theirspecific level that they're
working at at that moment, buteveryone can be successful in
that and it can push thosestudents up as well.
So it's not to limit them atall.
So just have a think like whatscaffolds can you provide?
(11:43):
And the reason these work isbecause, instead of having to go
around and say, okay, you'restruggling with this sentence.
How can you get started, jerry?
How can you get started?
Like what can you say?
So you're struggling with thissentence.
How can you get started, jerry?
How can you get started?
Like what can you say?
So you're sitting there withthat student.
You're supporting themone-to-one, instead of you
sitting there and supportingJerry one-to-one, while Stacey
is up the back waiting with herhand up because she also doesn't
(12:05):
know how to start her sentence.
Around the example that she'sfound.
You're able to go around.
Stacey has a hand up.
You're able to point to thescaffold in the exact part that
she's stuck on.
Jerry puts his hand up.
You're able to go over and gooh, give a bit of a thumbs up
and then point to the part wherehe's stuck on, so that scaffold
is working for you.
However, you need to rememberthat any scaffold that you
(12:27):
create, you have to teach.
Whatever you want your studentsto do, it must be first taught.
So giving them a pill scaffoldwith some sentence starters is
not going to work alone.
You'll have to do thegroundwork on that, project it
up on the boards and then modelit first yourself.
Okay, this is a scaffold.
What we're going to be doingthis lesson is you're going to
be learning how to write an epicparagraph.
(12:48):
I'm going to be going throughit first and I'm going to be
showing you exactly how to usethis paragraph scaffold to make
an epic paragraph.
Then you'll rub off what you'vedone on the board and you're
going to say okay, now you'regoing to show me how to do it as
a class.
That's your job First.
We've got the P.
Who wants to come up?
I'll give you the marker.
Who wants to come up and showme what you would write for P?
(13:10):
Fantastic.
Or you'll say okay, jerry, whatsentence data would you use for
the next section?
Why would you use that sentencedata?
Why would that work?
Fantastic.
Who can follow on from Jerry'ssentence?
Becky, fantastic, thank you,that's wonderful.
So you're building that together.
That's called jointconstructing.
So it's what's that?
(13:31):
What is that Me?
I do, we do, you do so.
It's that kind of philosophy ofscaffolding.
So I'll do it first and I'llshow you.
We will do it together and thenyou can go off and do it
independently.
So then you're building theirknowledge around the scaffold
and they feel more confident indoing it.
There's no point giving them ascaffold and expecting them to
know, because we're justassuming that they know how to
(13:52):
fill that in, but it's notnecessarily what they're going
to be able to do, and thenstudents will hopefully well, a
lot of them will be able to geton with it independently, and
that will then give you space towork with the students who are
really, really struggling, ifthey're still not getting it,
and just free you up in thelesson so you're able to feel
more confident and calm and incontrol of that space because
(14:15):
you've got things working foryou.
You have got everything runningsmoothly and that's why I call
so.
I've got this free trainingcoming up and it's called your
classroom management machine.
I turn your teaching into aclassroom management machine and
that's why I call it that,because all of these working
cogs, all of these pieces worktogether so perfectly.
So it's not just about thebehavior happening and then
(14:38):
we're responding reactively toit.
It's this beautiful proactiveway of approaching behavior that
works for us and works with us,and we can go in more confident
and capable and just feelamazing in the classroom because
we've got things covered.
So saying that, if you want tolearn more about what I call the
learning link and all of theother parts of this model.
(15:00):
I'll be giving you a rundown inthis free training.
It's coming up at the end ofthe month, called Turn your
Teaching Into A ClassroomManagement Machine.
Honestly, this session was sogood.
Last year A lot of people wouldbe like I would have paid for
that.
That is the best training Ihave received in my career
around classroom management andit was literally just an
introductory free trainingaround my four-step classroom
management approach.
(15:20):
But yeah, come along.
I would absolutely love to nerdout with you in person about
this.
I would love to spend some timetogether and walk you through
this just the stuff that peoplereally deserve to know.
Like it's just ridiculous thatwe aren't taught this stuff,
even the differentiation stuff.
I remember running that for thefirst time in my course, in my
(15:42):
training course, my classroommanagement lab course, and
someone was like why the hellhave I not been taught this
sooner?
And they had been teaching for20 years.
I'm like I don't know.
I just don't know it.
Just it's such a travesty.
Anyway, come along to that.
It would be brilliant to seeyou there.
You can register by heading tothe link the-unteachablescom.
Forward slash learn.
(16:02):
I have two different times thatyou can enroll in, so hopefully
you can come live, and I'llalso be giving everybody a free
gift for showing up and cominglive on the day.
But, of course, if you can'tmake it, I'll be releasing the
replay as well.
So come along, check it out,and it would be just freaking
wonderful to see you there.
But until then, this week, justgive it a go, you know, just
(16:25):
think, okay, this is what I'mteaching today.
What might be the questions thatI get?
What hands are going to go upand how can I put a scaffold, a
model, in place this lesson so Ican step away a little bit, I
can take a deep breath and I canjust have things working for me
in the lesson.
And if that works for you, ifyou try it and it goes well,
please like reach out onInstagram or my email,
(16:48):
claireatthe-unteachablescom.
Like, start the conversationwith me.
Let me know if that worked foryou or you know what you did in
your classroom.
I absolutely love, love, lovehaving that chat.
This is not a podcast that Ijust want to go out into the,
you know, into the universe, andnever have discussions around.
So come and have a chat with meand yeah, that is all for this
(17:08):
week.
Thank you for coming andspending some time with me and I
can't wait to do it again nextweek at the same time, in the
same place, on the Unteachablespodcast.
Bye for now, teachers.
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