Download resource

Please enter your details to download this resource
Login
 

Enter your details to access this video

Or if you already have an account login to watch the video (if you don't you can register here).
Login
scaffolded learning
Author: Karen Wilson, SEND Specialist
Email share link LinkedIn share link Twitter share link Facebook share link
Approximate reading time: 1 minute

Progressing from single words to full sentences is essential for learners’ confidence and access to the curriculum. The first goal is to build vocabulary and meaning. Start with key vocabulary using visuals, repetition, and word banks. Next, support learners with sentence stems and substitution tables to build phrases and gradually progress to expanding sentences with adjectives and conjunctions. You can also help to reduce cognitive load by using consistent, visual supports, limiting choices, and repeating model sentences so learners can focus on meaning rather than decoding complex language.

Tip or Idea: To build confidence for SEND and early EAL learners, encourage them to ‘say it first, write it after’. This might be through role play, talk partners, listen and repeat activities, or recording their own speech on a device. 

Learning Village resource: Use our Scaffolding a Literacy Lesson resource to support learners from word to sentence level. Why not ask your learners to role play the conversations shown in Step 5 for a fun spoken activity?

Email share link LinkedIn share link Twitter share link Facebook share link

More articles by this author

Colourful hands symbolising neurodiversity

SEND support: Supporting autistic learners

Created: Mon 24th Feb 2025

Learners, with or without EAL, may have special educational needs. These needs often require a range of carefully selected strategies and approaches to help learners reach their full potential.

SEND Support: Listening to and giving instructions - Prepositions

Created: Mon 13th Nov 2023

Learners having difficulty with receptive language or following directions may need support with learning propositions.

Tip or Idea: Ask your learner to draw or make an imaginary scene by following instructions e.g. Draw a house at the bottom of your page/Draw a sunshine above the house/Draw a tree next to the house. Extend this further: Can your learner tell you what to draw? Can they make a crazy or funny picture? Can they make a scene with physical objects?

Teacher motivating learners

SEND support: Motivating SEND learners

Created: Wed 4th Dec 2024

All learners have times where they may become less engaged or motivated with their learning. This can be for a range of reasons but learners with additional needs may face even more challenges. It is important to get to know your learners well and learn what motivates and excites them. Try to incorporate this into your lesson planning and help them to progress and reach their full potential.

Back to Blog