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Vygotksy's Zone of Proximal Development (Explained in 4 minutes)

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Zone of Proximal Development in the Classroom

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Zone of Proximal Development in the Classroom

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The Secret to Better Learning in the Classroom

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What is ZPD? | The Continuing Educator  from NWEA

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The War that Saved My Life Anticipatory Set

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The use of an anticipatory set helps engage all learners and prepare them for the upcoming lesson. Anticipatory sets assists in connecting new material with the prior knowledge of students about the upcoming topic. Above is the anticipatory set I use when introducing the novel, The War that Saved My Life, to my fifth grade gifted students.

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Visual aids are useful for all students. They help eliminate vocabulary and language barriers while increasing comprehension. Visual aids can consist of photographs, infographics, diagrams, videos, charts, tables, etc. I attached the visual aids I post for each of the six problem solving strategies we use in math.

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There are four steps to this cycle that allows ML learners to work with the text before composing a written piece about it. Step 1: Students are assigned to read an engaging text. Step 2: Students are given a focus for their reading with scaffolded prompts. Step 3: Students verbally share their thinking with a partner or in a small group. Step 4: Students create their written response to the text.

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What is the Zone of Proximal Development?

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What is the Zone of Proximal Development?

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During the 1920s, Russian psychologist and social constructivist Lev Vygotsky developed the concept of "Zone of Proximal Development" to account for the learning potential of students. The ZPD is defined as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). It is the area between the comfort zone of a learner and the frustration level of the learner.

The ZPD is where students benefit the most from instruction leading to maximum academic growth as it's the area between current knowledge and potential knowledge obtained with guidance from a more knowledgeable person (McLeod, 2024).

The use of scaffolding became a crucial component of ZPD in the 1970s. Scaffolding is a temporary support provided to learners to assist them in achieving a learning goal not previously obtainable. Examples of effective scaffolding techniques include: modeling the expected behavior, prompting by asking guiding questions, chunking complex tasks into smaller chunks, providing valuable resources, and providing constructive feedback (Cloke, 2024).

Zygotsky's zone of proximal development greatly influenced the education of students, especially ML learners, by focusing instruction at the level for optimal growth.

Cloke, H. (2024, October 17). The Zone of Proximal

Development: A Guide for Learning Professionals. Growth

Engineering. https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/zone

of-proximal-development/

McLeod, S. (2024, August 9). Vygotsky’s zone of Proximal

Development. Simply Psychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/zone-of-proximal

development.html

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of

higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard

University Press.

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This teaching strategy allows for the gradual release of responsibility of learning. Initially the teacher models the concept or skill while verbally sharing his/her thinking throughout the problem. After effectively modeling, students work with partners or in small groups to practice the concept or skill. Once students are ready, they move on to solving the problems independently. This methods allow for students to become comfortable with the concept and language involved before tackling them independently.

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During this teaching method, students take turns being the "teacher." Students are placed in small groups and given a text or concept to learn. The group works together to become masters of the content. New groups are assembled with one member from each original group. Each member has the knowledge of one concept needed to complete the final task. Jigsaw learning helps students improve their collaboration skills, communication skills and comprehension of content.