Pre-reading Questions
How do you transition from showing your learners how to do a reading task to having learners do the task independently? What supports might you provide them?
Instructors are responsible for knowing their learners’ needs
and abilities, providing adequate supports, and removing those supports when
appropriate.
Introduction
The gradual release of responsibility is a framework in which the cognitive load for completing a task is intentionally shifted from the instructor to the learner over time (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983). When learners are presented with new content, skills, or strategies, instruction begins with high levels of support such as modelling and scaffolding before moving to independent practice. While a previous model of the gradual release of responsibility (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983) included three steps (modelling, scaffolding, independent work), Fisher and Frey (2014) have developed a slightly adapted version that includes a fourth step – collaborative learning. This gradual release of responsibility framework consists of the teacher providing focused
instruction (e.g., explicit instruction, modelling), guided instruction (e.g., scaffolding with high to low levels of instructor support), collaborative learning (e.g., learners working together with the new skills and instructor scaffolding as
necessary), and independent learning (e.g., learners complete the tasks independently) (Fisher & Frey, 2014). Instructors are responsible for knowing their learners’ needs and abilities, providing adequate supports, and removing those supports when appropriate. Instructors are also responsible for providing formative, action-oriented feedback, so that learners can eventually complete the tasks independently and work towards becoming independent learners.
Before I describe each of the four steps of this framework with ESL adult literacy learners, I would like to return to Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development as this theory is implicit within the gradual release of responsibility framework. As discussed in Chapter 3, Vygotsky (1978) distinguishes between learners’ actual development level (i.e., what learners can do independently) and their zone of proximal development (i.e., what is
emerging in learners’ skills and knowledge). While CLB levels can represent learners’ actual developmental level, all learners differ in their zones of proximal development, or what they are able to achieve with support, due to a variety of factors such as home and school environments, amount of modifications and support provided at school and at home, and instructors’ abilities, time, and resources (Elliott, 2003).
Years of prior education and availability of first language skills to transfer into learning a subsequent language can influence rates of progress and supports required to progress (National Institute for Literacy, 2010; Watt & Lake, 2004). ESL adult literacy learners may lack important knowledge and skills such as metalinguistic knowledge and metacognitive thinking skills. August (2004; as cited in National Institute for Literacy, 2010) found that years of prior literacy training affects transferability skills: “Learners with higher levels of literacy could use higher-level thinking and reading techniques to read and understand English, but those with low literacy (below fourth grade) did not have the advantage of transferring those skills” (p. 5). Gaps in concepts, skills, and strategies can lead ESL adult literacy learners to have different zones of proximal development than more literate peers.
In light of differences between and within individuals, ESL instructors need to consider both the language and the literacy skill development needs for ESL adult literacy learners. The continua in the Canadian Language Benchmarks: ESL for Adult
Literacy Learners (CCLB, 2014) can be used to approximate ESL adult literacy
learners’ zones of proximal development. An underlying assumption of these continua is that learners enter at different points based on their readiness and unique learning histories: “The Continuum also serves as a reminder of the uniqueness of each learner; those who use it will see that no individual is at the same degree of ability for all skills, and that no two individuals have the same pattern of skill development” (CCLB, 2014, p. 105). As Ausubel (1968) stated, understanding learners’ actual developmental level is essential in planning
instructional supports to move learners forward: “If I had to reduce all of
educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly” (p. vi, italics in original). If instruction occurs beyond learners’
zones of proximal development, learners may experience frustration as the content will be too difficult.
To exemplify how to use the reading continuum in the Canadian Language
Benchmarks: ESL for Adult Literacy Learners (CCLB, 2014) to approximate learners’
zones of proximal development, we can consider learners who are working in the Emerging level for decoding text. At this level, learners can recognize that letters have both a sound and a name. With modelling and support, these learners could reasonably be expected to begin to differentiate a few familiar two-letter words (e.g., an, in, on) consistent with their zone of proximal development (i.e., in the Emerging+ level). However, these learners could not be expected to attend to first, medial, and final letters and their corresponding sound when guessing unfamiliar words (i.e., Building+ level) even after modelling and support as this expectation typically would lie well beyond their current zone of proximal development, thus being too difficult to comprehend or ‘unpack’.
The goal of implementing the gradual release of responsibility, with the underlying theory of Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development, is that instructors need to support learners in becoming independent learners. ESL adult literacy learners need extra supports in developing a variety of concepts, skills, and strategies that are required to move them towards independent learning in academic contexts.
In this section I describe each of the four steps of the gradual release of responsibility framework. Even though I address them in a specific sequence, instructors are not required to adhere strictly to this order. Instructors can move
flexibly among these steps as long as learners are not expected to complete tasks independently until the requisite concepts, skills, and strategies are attained in the previous steps (Fisher & Frey, 2014).