Types of Scaffolds & Examples

As teachers of English Learners, we know the importance of scaffolds and the impact that they have on student achievement.

In her article "Scaffolding Instruction for English Learners", Diane Staehr Fenner shares Pauline Gibbins's (2015) definition of scaffolds: "A scaffold is a temporary support a teacher provides to a student that enables the student to perform a task he or she would not be able to perform alone. This support comes in such forms as classroom materials and/or resources provided to the student, the instructional practices the teacher uses, or even how students are grouped during instruction."*

Newcomers and ELs at the beginning level of English proficiency will need more scaffolds compared to students who are more advanced. The ultimate goal is for students to be able to complete a task without any scaffolds at all but until then, teachers need to be intentional in the selection of scaffolds for classroom strategies and activities.

Below is an infographic with three types scaffolds adapted from Diane Staehr Fenner's work and an example of possible scaffolds for the Think-Write-Pair-Share strategy. To make a copy, click on the button below.

*Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. (2nd ed.) Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. as cited in Fenner, D. S., & Snyder, S. (2017). Unlocking English learners' potential: Strategies for making content accessible. Corwin press.