Even our youngest students are facing a professional career in the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which means we need to give them as many opportunities as possible to become more divergent thinkers than technology is. This scaffold gives them the opportunity to use discernment, creativity and negotiating skills to identify information that is present and information that is not present. You’ll see that the quality of thinking your students reach in your classes after participating in this collaborative dynamic, will be the difference between being qualified for jobs that technology is (still) not capable of performing, and watching the world from the sidelines.
This applies even to our youngest learners. We can help them to assimilate academic language even before they begin to read. If we verbalise first-, second- and third-tier words,*** through dynamic activities, we are helping them to become familiar with academic language that will serve them for the rest of their academic and professional lives.
