EAL Department · Week 3 of 6
Week 3: Plan and fade support
Use temporary support that makes a demanding task possible while teaching learners how to manage more of it themselves.
Your guiding question
What support will help now, and how will I know when to reduce it?
Use temporary support that makes a demanding task possible while teaching learners how to manage more of it themselves.
Weekly outcome: A support plan with a model, a guided trial and an independence check.
Understand the idea
Match the support to the barrier.
A labelled image may help a learner connect a term to a concept; it will not by itself teach how to justify a conclusion. Select a model, organiser, rehearsal routine or prompt because it addresses the demand you identified.
Make the thinking visible.
Show how a response is built. Think aloud about selecting evidence, choosing a linking phrase or checking a diagram. Ask learners to explain a choice in the model before they imitate it. A scaffold should provide a route into thinking, not just spaces to fill.
Plan the next reduction.
After guided success, reduce one part of the support and observe what happens. You might move from a complete model to key words, or from sentence openings to a checklist. Keep the learning goal stable. If performance drops, investigate and restore the support that is still useful.
Try it in a real lesson
- Use the task analysis from week 2 to name one barrier.
- Choose one scaffold and explain what it will help the learner do. Prepare a short model.
- Plan a guided attempt, followed by a comparable task with one part of the support reduced.
- Record the learner’s response and the support used. Decide what to keep, adapt or fade next.
Fictional worked example
See the decisions in practice
First attempt
Mai studies two force diagrams with her teacher. A model identifies the forces, compares their sizes and directions, then explains the conclusion. She rehearses with a partner before using “The forces are … because …”.
Reduced support
For a new diagram, remove the sentence opening but retain a checklist: compare size; compare direction; explain the conclusion. Check whether Mai chooses and explains the relationship, rather than judging success from the presence of “because” alone.
Across ages and subjects
Primary: move from a labelled picture and oral model to a picture with key words. Maths: remove a worked-step prompt while keeping a checking question. History: replace a paragraph frame with an evidence-and-limitation checklist.
Make your weekly record
Write a three-stage scaffold plan: model and explain; guided attempt; comparable task with reduced support. For each stage, record the exact help available and what you will look for.
Reflect on what happened
- Did the scaffold open access to the same subject thinking?
- What could the learner do after I reduced the support?
- Did I change too many features of the task at once?
Discuss with a colleague
Show a colleague the model, guided response and independence check. Agree which support the learner still needs and which can be reduced.
For the EAL colleague: Connect scaffold choice to learner evidence. Help the team agree a manageable independence check rather than treating a support level as a permanent label.
For the subject teacher: Keep the disciplinary success criteria clear and show your EAL colleague which parts of the response must be the learner’s own reasoning.
Pause and think
A learner completes a paragraph frame accurately. Is it time to remove every prompt?
Compare your thinking
Completion is useful evidence, but it does not show independent control. Try a comparable task with a smaller reduction in support, and check whether the learner can select ideas and explain relationships without relying on the frame.
Use these resources
Further reading: The Bell Foundation: temporary scaffolding and withdrawal ↗. This week’s sequence and examples are original EAL in Practice materials.
Your week 3 record
Plan, trial and reflect
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