Scaffolding--supporting learners' efforts to bridge the gap between their present knowledge and the intended goal--is an effective instructional technique. The Scaffolding Reading Experience helps students get the most out of every literacy experience. The teacher considers the students, their purposes for reading, and the intended text, and…

Reading for students beyond the primary and lower elementary grades gets relatively little attention. Despite the widespread acceptance of the importance of higher levels of literacy for students, levels that can only be achieved across the years of elementary and secondary school, most educators, researchers, and policymakers focus their…

In this article, the authors explore the concept of instructional scaffolding as it applies to facilitating students' reading comprehension. They argue that scaffolding is a highly flexible and adaptable model of instruction that supports students as they acquire both basic skills and higher order thinking processes, allows for explicit…

This article discusses how to use scaffolding in reading instruction for children with different reading abilities, including children with disabilities in inclusive settings. Scaffolding is described and a scaffolding model (the Scaffolded Reading Experience) is illustrated. The article also suggests possible program components for prereading…

This instructional study investigated the effects of two approaches to fostering elementary students' comprehension of literature. Participants were 54 third-grade students in 2 classrooms in a linguistic and culturally diverse, urban elementary school. Students read two folktales, receiving a Scaffolded Reading Experience (SRE) unit with one…

Scaffolded reading experiences provide a practical, research-based framework that teachers can use to support their English language learners. The Scaffolded Reading Experience framework consists of a set of Prue-, during-, and postreading activities to use with any genre of texts. Prereading strategies include building background knowledge,…

Defines the Scaffolding Reading Experience as a reading improvement technique that incorporates prereading, reading, and postreading activities. Discusses how this can be used in social studies classes and provides specific examples from an 11th-grade U.S. history class. Includes a list of optional activities and teaching suggestions. (MJP)

Describes the Scaffolding Reading Experience, a technique that helps students deal with challenging expository texts and supports social science inquiry methods. This technique relies on various supporting activities during the prereading, during-reading, and postreading phases. Outlines a series of these activities used during a U.S. history…