Research-Supported Rationale

Throughout this conducted lesson, the target is for the students to be able to understand,

recognize, and differentiate between the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why). Ultimately, this

will build their comprehension skills when reading texts to understand the story on a more

profound level. To do this, Lev Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory was placed into this lesson plan.

Vygotsky believed that children gain beliefs, cultural values, and problem solving skills through

the interaction with other members of society. Therefore, this theory allows for the student to

interact with the teacher and other classmates in an effective manner. Every function in the

child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual

level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological)

(McLeod, 2020). Some steps within our lesson that follows Vygotsky's theory is peer to peer

collaboration, learning groups, thoughts and language, dialogue, and reflection. Within

Vygotsky's cognitive development theory, we choose to use scaffolding as one of our strategies.

The theory behind instructional scaffolding is that, compared to learning independently, students

learn more when collaborating with others who have a wider range of skills and knowledge than

the student currently does (Sarikas, 2020). There are different stages within his theory. The first

being, the students can complete the work or learn on his/her own, so this is a very independent

stage. The next stage is where the students can learn the content or complete the assignment,

however, with the help of another classmate or with help from the teacher. After this the skills

the students are trying to achieve they can't do yet even with help. These stages are called the

Zone of Proximal Development and are essential to keep in mind, especially when every student

in the class is at a different learning level. In the end, using this theory can make it easier on the

teacher and help the student achieve the different goals.

 Resources

McLeod, S. A. (2018, August 05). Lev Vygotsky. Simply Psychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/vygotsky.html

Sarikas, C. (2020, January 4). Vygotsky scaffolding: What it is and how to use it.

https://blog.prepscholar.com/vygotsky-scaffolding-zone-of-proximal-development