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Court Caywood Uses Scaffolded Quill Lessons to Strengthen her 6th Graders' Language Arts Skills

September 30th, 2024

By Maddy Maher

While larger group learning fosters a sense of comfort and solidarity amongst learners, concept mastery does not come without independent practice. Court Caywood, a sixth grade Language Arts teacher at Lyman Moore Middle School, uses Quill in tandem with scaffolded lessons to ensure that students feel supported and confident when it is time to start applying challenging concepts to their writing.

“I start my week by instructing students with a lesson based on their results from the Diagnostic Test,” says Caywood, continuing, “this is a scaffolded lesson that uses a gradual release method of practicing the skill until students complete the sample problems independently. Students are then required to complete the Follow-Up Activity on their own before the end of the week.”

As a part of Caywood’s scaffolding method, he requires that his students play activities until they achieve a green icon indicating concept proficiency. “When they play the activity until they achieve a green, I know that they have mastered the skill, and they feel a sense of pride when they see the icon turn green,” he says. Why is this sense of pride so important? Because it fosters student engagement. “The students are enthusiastic about learning these new skills and even request that I select their answer to project in front of the class. My favorite response has been how students point out examples of each new skill in their writing. I recently had a student approach me to show off the appositive phrase that she used in her recent literary analysis.”

Caywood has found that Quill’s Diagnostic Recommendations also suit his scaffolded lessons well because they cater both to the needs of his class as a whole in addition to the needs of individual students without taking up a significant amount class or personal time. “Before using Quill, it was difficult to pinpoint the areas of greatest need amongst my students outside of anecdotal notes taken while grading student essays. With the Diagnostic Test, the work of seeing the greatest areas of need was done for me, and I could address the areas of greatest need directly. In addition, the lessons take very little planning and can typically be completed within twenty minutes,” he explains.

Caywood’s Best Practices:

  • Use the “gradual release method”—Conduct Lessons followed by independent practice activities to ensure concept mastery through instruction and practice
  • Allow Quill to save you time and planning. Quill’s Diagnostic recommendations can help inform individualized learning plans
  • Use Quill’s grading system (red, yellow, green) to encourage students to stay engaged with their learning

To find more Teacher Stories like Court Caywood’s, click here!

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