6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your
Students
What's the opposite of scaffolding a lesson? It would be saying to students something like, "Read
this nine-page science article, write a detailed essay on the topic it explores, and turn it in by
Wednesday." Yikes -- no safety net, no parachute, no scaffolding -- just left blowing in the wind.
Let's start by agreeing that scaffolding a lesson and differentiating instruction are two different
things. Scaffolding is breaking up the learning into chunks and then providing a tool, or structure,
with each chunk. When scaffolding reading, for example, you might preview the text and discuss
key vocabulary, or chunk the text and read and discuss as you go. With differentiation, you may
give a child an entirely different piece of text to read, you might shorten the text or alter it, and you
may modify the writing assignment that follows.
Simply put, scaffolding is what you do first with kids, then for those students who are still
struggling, you may need to differentiate by modifying an assignment and/or making
accommodations for a student (for example, choose more accessible text and/or assign an
alternative project).
Scaffolding and differentiation do have something in common though. In order to meet students
where they are and appropriately scaffold a lesson, or differentiate instruction, you have to know the
individual and collective zone of proximal development (ZPD) of your learners. (As education
researcher Eileen Raymond states, "[T]he ZPD is the distance between what children can do by
themselves and the next learning that they can be helped to achieve with competent assistance.")
So let's get to some scaffolding strategies you may or may not have tried yet, or perhaps you've not
used them in sometime and just need a gentle reminder on how awesome and helpful they can be
when it comes to student learning:
1. Show and Tell
How many of us say that we learn best by seeing something rather than hearing about it? Modeling
for students is a cornerstone of scaffolding in my experience. Have you ever interrupted someone
with "just show me!" while they were in the middle of explaining to you how to do something?
Every chance you have, show or demonstrate to students exactly what they are expected to do.
Try the fish bowl activity, where a small group in the center are circled by the class as the
group in the middle, or fishbowl, engage in an activity, modeling how it's done for the larger
group.
Always show students the outcome or product before they do it. If a teacher assigns a
persuasive essay or inquiry-based science project, a model should be presented side-by-side
with a criteria chart or rubric. You can guide students through each step of the process,
model in-hand of the finished product.
Use think alouds, which will allow you to model your thought process as you: read a text,
solve a problem, or design a project. Remember that children's cognitive abilities are still in
development so opportunities for them to see developed, critical thinking are essential.
2. Tap into Prior Knowledge
Ask students to share their own experiences, hunches, and ideas about the content or concept of
study and have them relate and connect it to their own lives. Sometimes you may have to offer hints
and suggestions, leading them to the connections a bit, but once they get there, they will grasp it as
their own.
Launching the learning in your classroom from the prior knowledge of your students, and using this
as a framework for future lessons is not only a scaffolding technique, many would agree it's just
plain good teaching.
3. Give Time to Talk
All learners need time to process new ideas and information. They also need time to verbally make
sense of and articulate their learning with the community of learners who are also engaged in the
same experience and journey. As we all know, structured discussions really work best with children
regardless of their level of maturation. If you aren't weaving in think-pair-share, turn-and-talk, triad
teams or some other structured talking time throughout the lesson, you should begin including this
crucial strategy on a regular basis.
4. Pre-Teach Vocabulary
Sometimes referred to as frontloading vocabulary, this is a strategy that we teachers don't use
enough. Many of us, myself included, are guilty of sending students all alone down the bumpy,
muddy path known as Challenging Text -- a road booby trapped with difficult vocabulary. We send
them ill-prepared and then we are often shocked when they: a) lose interest b) create a ruckus c) fall
asleep.
Pre-teaching vocabulary doesn't mean pulling a dozen words from the chapter and having kids look
up definitions and write them out (we all know how this will go. Again, see above a, b, and c).
Instead, introduce the words to kids in photos, and in context to things they know and are interested
in. Use analogies, metaphors and invite students to create a symbol or drawing for each word and
give time for discussion of the words (small and whole groups). Not until they've done all this
should the dictionaries come out. And the dictionaries will be used only to compare with those
definitions they've already discovered on their own.
With the dozen or so words "frontloaded," students are ready, you as their guide, to tackle that
challenging text.
5. Use Visual Aids
Graphic organizers, pictures, and charts can all serve as scaffolding tools. Graphic organizers are
very specific in that they help kids visually represent their ideas, organize information, and grasp
concepts such as sequencing and cause and effect.
A graphic organizer shouldn't be The Product, but rather it's a scaffolding tool that helps guide and
shape the student's thinking so that they can apply it. Some students can dive right into the
discussion, or writing an essay, or synthesizing several different hypotheses without using a graphic
organizer of some sort, but many of our students benefit from using them with a difficult reading or
challenging new information. Think of graphic organizers as training wheels; they are temporary
and meant to be removed.
6. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, Review
This is a wonderful way to check for understanding while students read a chunk of difficult text or
learn a new concept or content. Here's how this strategy works: a new idea from discussion or the
reading is shared, then pause (providing think time), then ask a strategic question, pausing again. By
strategic, you need to design them ahead of time, make sure they are specific, guiding and open-
ended questions. (Great questions fail without giving think time for responses so hold out during
that Uncomfortable Silence.) Keep kids engaged as active listeners by calling on someone to "give
the gist" of what was just discussed / discovered / questioned. If the class seems stuck by the
questions, provide an opportunity for students to discuss it with a neighbor.
Trying Something New
With all the diverse learners in our classrooms, there is a strong need for teachers to learn and
experiment with new scaffolding strategies. I often say to teachers I support, you have slow down in
order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson may, in fact, take longer to teach, but the end product is of
far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.
