Scaffolding - Rescuing Planned to Unprepared Instructional Approaches

Aug 21, 2026

Upload by Maeve

Scaffolding strategies are contrasted across planned, intentional teaching and unprepared, reactive approaches. The text maps how instructional choices influence reader safety, risk-taking, independence, and responsibility through specific behaviors: proactive vs. knee-jerk decisions, derived knowledge vs. discomfort-driven jumping in, and deliberate planning vs. accidental or impulsive moves. It also distinguishes reciprocal workload—empowering both teacher and reader—from teacher-dominant work that exhausts and produces passive readers. It culminates with the principle of planning scaffold removal to avoid stagnation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLifestyle

FormatPDF

Pages2

Reading Time3 min

AccessFree to download

Scaffolding: Planned vs. Unprepared Teaching

Learning zone and risk-taking

Instructional intent vs. chance

Knowledge-based decisions vs. uncertainty

Reader responsibility vs. instructor control

Planning scaffold removal vs. stagnation

| Scaffolding | Rescuing | | --- | --- | | Planned -we have a specific idea of where the instruction is going and stick to it | Unprepared – we’re not sure exactly where we’re going with the lesson, but hoping for the best | | Easy to learn – we dig our heels into the Zone of Proximal Development, supporting readers in just the right way so they feel safe taking risks when things are challenging | Easy to give up -our teaching behaviors encourage readers to abandon their attempts, sit back, and let someone else do it | | Intentional – every move we make is exact, decided, and well-reasoned | Chance – we’re grabbing at straws and unsure of whether our teaching moves are appropriate | | Proactive – we anticipate student behaviorsand needs as we prepare our lessons | Reactive – our teaching decisions are knee-jerk at best often leaving us unsure of their effectiveness | | Derived from knowledge – we make sound decisions based in what we know about the reader and best instructional practices | Arrives from discomfort and uncertainty – we aren’t sure what to do, so our dissonance prompts us to jump in without reflecting | | Assumes innate ability-we know our reader has the strength inside to take on the task at hand as we wait, trust, and facilitate | Assumes helplessness – perhaps unconsciously, we may not trust the reader to step up and may be unsure if he can be successful without us | | Deliberate – we plan ahead, stay focused, and fill our bag of tricks with appropriate, intentional teaching moves derived from our own professional development | Accidental – our teaching moves can be rash and hit or miss, and while we may score some terrific teaching moments, we aren’t always sure why or how they occurred | | Calculated – our lessons and conversations are tightly focused, and we don’t lose sight of the goal | Impulsive – the lesson is loose and hurried, leaving our teaching feeling vague and scattered | | Student focused – every move we make is dependent on the student taking some level of responsibility, and we strive to promote strategies students will use when reading independently | Instructor focused – we’ve taken so much responsibility that when we step out of the situation, the reading stops or reverts back to its previous status | | Plan for removal – we understand that all scaffolds are built to be removed eventually and we move forward with that end goal in mind | No plan for removal – our instructional language and prompts are the same for most of our lessons making them inadvertently stagnate | | Intentionally shared workload – we understand that scaffolding takes two and are mindful of the dual responsibilities of the reader and the teacher | Teacher doing most of the work – in an effort to move the lesson along, we control the conversation and the text while the student lets us | | --- | --- | | Empowering – both reader and teacher walk away from the lesson feeling valued and capable-a natural byproduct of true reciprocal learning | Exhausting – both reader and teacher are tired from the instructional push and pull and overall disconnect of the lesson | | Expects active readers – we address apathy in our teaching as well as our learners and insist that they sit up, participate, and‘take the bull by the horns’ | Generates passive readers – we allow readers to take part as a quasi-involved participant, unintentionally training them to do the same when it comes time to read independently | ©Terry Thompson All rights [reserved. www.choiceliteracy.com](reserved. www.choiceliteracy.com)

FAQs

What does the text say about planned versus unprepared instruction in scaffolding?

Planned instruction clearly directs where teaching is going and stays aligned with the lesson goal. Unprepared instruction is uncertain about direction and relies on hope or best outcomes.

How should scaffolding handle student independence and responsibility?

Effective scaffolding depends on readers taking some responsibility and uses strategies students can apply when reading independently. Instructor-focused control can stop reading when the teacher steps out, reverting progress.

Why is planning scaffold removal important?

All scaffolds are intended to be removed eventually, so instruction should move forward with that end goal in mind. Without a removal plan, repeated prompts and language can stagnate lessons.

Aug 21, 2026

Upload by Maeve