Advance organizers - Tools used to introduce new content and tasks to help students learn about the topic: Graphic organizers to help students organize their thinking or process information;  Venn diagrams to compare and contrast information; flow charts to illustrate processes; organizational charts to illustrate hierarchies; outlines that represent content; mnemonics to assist recall; statements to situate the task or content; rubrics that provide task expectations.

Cue Cards - Prepared cards given to individual or groups of students to assist in their discussion about a particular topic or content area: Vocabulary words to prepare for exams; content-specific stem sentences to complete; formulae to associate with a problem; concepts to define.

Concept and mind maps - Maps that show relationships: Partially or completed maps for students to complete; students create their own maps based on their current knowledge of the task or concept.

Examples, models, exemplars - Samples, specimens, illustrations, text models, exemplars: Real objects; illustrative problems used to represent something.

Explicit Instruction- A clearly learning target and success criteria. Detailed, step-by-step instructions for tasks and activities. Written instructions for a task or activity; verbal explanation of how a process works.

Handouts (i.e. graphic organizers, note catchers, guided (CLOZE) notes) - Prepared handouts that contain task- and content-related information, but with less detail and room for student note taking.

Context clues - clues to move students along: “place your foot in front of the other,” “use the escape key,” “find the subject of the verb,” “add the water first and then the acid.”

Prompts - A physical or verbal cue to remind—to aid in recall of prior or assumed knowledge.

• Physical: Body movements such as pointing, nodding the head, eye blinking, foot tapping.

• Verbal: Words, statements and questions such as “Go,” “Stop,” “It’s right there,” “Tell me now,” “What toolbar menu item would you press to insert an image?”, “Tell me why the character acted that way.”

Question Cards - Prepared cards with content- and task-specific questions given to individuals or groups of students to ask each other pertinent questions about a particular topic or content area.

Sentence Stems - Incomplete sentences which students complete: 

Visual Scaffolds - Pointing (call attention to an object); representational gestures (holding curved hands apart to illustrate roundness; moving rigid hands diagonally upward to illustrate steps or process), diagrams such as charts and graphs; methods of highlighting visual information.