Scaffolding in Education and How to Use It to Support Struggling Secondary Readers

Reading proficiency is widely regarded as the foundation of academic success, but many middle and high school students struggle when faced with complex grade-level texts. This raises a crucial question for educators: How can we help students succeed in reading challenging material across all content areas?

A common solution is to offer students "instructional level" texts — that is, texts that are written at a level that students can read with a relatively high level of fluency and comprehension (which, for struggling readers, often means texts written below or even far below grade level).

However, research shows that these easier texts do little to help students make significant progress in reading comprehension. Instead, a more effective instructional strategy involves using complex texts, accompanied by thoughtful and targeted scaffolding, to support student learning.

In this post, we’ll explore the idea of complex text, the research behind complex text instruction, and how educators can provide the scaffolding to ensure all learners can successfully engage with challenging material.

What Are Complex Texts and Instructional Reading Level Texts?

Identifying "instructional-level" texts can be challenging because the definition has evolved over time and varies across different sources. However, in general, instructional-level texts are those that a student can read with relatively high fluency and comprehension, though the exact numbers vary by source.

This chart was created based on work by Emmett Albert Betts, an author and educator in the teaching of reading, from 1946 and is an example of what some educators have used in the past to determine reading levels.

Complex texts are generally texts that are at grade level or above and require substantial teacher support to facilitate students’ fluency and comprehension. These texts can have words that are more difficult to decode, complicated sentence structures, and more advanced concepts and vocabulary.

While the idea of using “instructional-level” texts to improve student reading seems reasonable — not too easy, not too hard — the practice has not been shown to be effective in accelerating student reading growth. Instead, research points to utilizing complex texts as a more effective instructional strategy.

Research Supporting Using Complex Text for Instruction

Research supports the idea that complex texts, when paired with appropriate instructional support, can lead to better learning outcomes than simpler, “instructional-level” texts.

Studies have found that students engaged with grade-level texts, even those that are challenging, tend to learn more content and improve reading comprehension when provided with scaffolding. In particular, more recent studies highlight that when students are taught with grade-level texts and given the right support, they achieve as much — if not more — than when they read easier materials (Brown et al., 2017).

These findings suggest that scaffolded instruction with complex texts is a more effective strategy for promoting student learning.

Scaffolding in Reading Instruction

Despite the evidence supporting the benefits of complex text in reading instruction, implementing this approach in the classroom can feel overwhelming, particularly when working with students who struggle to read at grade level.

So, how can it be done effectively? One key to successful instruction with complex text is scaffolding.

Scaffolding involves providing temporary support that helps students bridge the gap between what they can do independently and what they can do with assistance. As students become more confident, this support is gradually reduced.

Teaching a complex text can require an educator to plan carefully to scaffold the following components:

• background knowledge
• vocabulary words
• sentence complexity and cohesion
• text organization and/or genre

Additionally, if students are struggling with reading grade-level text fluently (with accuracy, appropriate speed, and expression), including text fluency work up front before diving into comprehension can be an important part of scaffolding complex text.

Strengthening Fluency First

Fluency is a crucial yet often overlooked component of scaffolding complex text. If students struggle to read smoothly and with expression, their mental energy is spent on decoding rather than understanding and they can become frustrated or disengaged. Fluency work should be incorporated before deep comprehension work to ensure students can engage with the text effectively.

One powerful way a teacher can support fluency is through modeling. By modeling how to read complex text with appropriate rate, phrasing, and expression teachers can demonstrate how fluent reading impacts comprehension. Fluent reading can help students internalize how punctuation, sentence structure, and tone influence meaning. However, modeling fluent reading should serve as a foundation for students' own reading, not as a substitute for it — students must be reading more and more often.

During fluency work, the teacher can also provide explicit instruction on word analysis strategies for tackling difficult multisyllabic words. By breaking down complex words into smaller, more recognizable parts and demonstrating how to apply decoding strategies, teachers equip students with the tools to independently navigate unfamiliar words.

Repeated readings (reading the same text multiple times to improve fluency) of complex text before comprehension work can help students increase the amount of mental energy they have to spend on understanding and analyzing difficult text.

This type reading practice can take place in many different ways including, echo, choral or partner reading. For secondary students especially, partner reading, where students take turns reading and offering feedback to each other, can be an age appropriate and effective way to improve fluency.

Scaffolding Background Knowledge

Explicitly building background knowledge is essential for helping students access complex text, as comprehension is deeply connected to what readers already know.

One effective scaffolding strategy is using text sets — a collection of related texts at a variety of reading levels that introduce key concepts in accessible ways before students engage with a more challenging piece. These supporting texts can also include articles, picture books, infographics, or short videos that provide foundational knowledge in a more digestible format.

By reading and discussing easier texts first, students gain familiarity with essential ideas, vocabulary, and concepts, making the complex text more approachable. Teachers can further scaffold background knowledge by engaging students in discussions, activating prior knowledge through questioning, and using graphic organizers to help them make connections.

Providing this structured support ensures that students are not only prepared for the content of the complex text but also equipped with the necessary context to engage in deeper comprehension and analysis.

Scaffolding Vocabulary Knowledge

In conjunction with background knowledge, vocabulary knowledge also plays a crucial role in comprehension, especially when students are reading complex text. To support students effectively, teachers should be strategic in selecting which words to pre-teach, focusing on those that are essential for accessing the content rather than words students can determine through context.

Academic (Tier II) and domain-specific vocabulary (Tier III), particularly words that are central to understanding key concepts can be introduced prior to reading a complex text to scaffold student understanding. However, words that can be inferred from surrounding clues should be left for students to figure out independently, as this strengthens their ability to use context as a reading strategy to determine meaning. It is important for teachers to model this skill explicitly with plenty of practice within text before asking students to complete it independently.

Effective scaffolding of vocabulary includes providing student-friendly definitions, using visuals, discussing examples and non-examples, breaking down the morphology of words, and engaging students in meaningful practice with new words, both orally and in writing. Also, teaching students how vocabulary words are interconnected within complex text, but also connected to words in other contexts, is important for building an overall vocabulary framework.

By carefully selecting which words to pre-teach and which to allow students to determine through reading, teachers can help students build the vocabulary knowledge necessary for deeper comprehension without diminishing their ability to develop word-learning strategies on their own.

Scaffolding Sentence Complexity and Cohesion

The structure of sentences in complex texts can present a significant challenge for students, especially when dealing with things like long, intricate sentences and unfamiliar or complicated pronoun references.

To scaffold sentence complexity, teachers can break down difficult sentences into smaller parts, guiding students to analyze how ideas are connected. Explicit instruction on pronouns within text is also essential — students often struggle to track who or what a pronoun is referring to, particularly in texts with multiple characters or more abstract ideas.

Additionally, teachers can help students navigate cohesion throughout a text by pointing out transition words, conjunctions, and other linking phrases that signal relationships between ideas.

Scaffolding Text Organization/Genre

Understanding a text’s genre and structure is essential for scaffolding complex texts, but recognizing these elements should not take the place of determining the text’s deeper meaning is key. Students must be careful not to miss the forest for the trees — focusing too much on identifying structural patterns without considering how they contribute to the author’s overall message.

While texts follow organizational patterns — such as chronological order, compare and contrast, or problem and solution — these structures serve as a framework rather than the full meaning of the text.

For example, a historical text may be written in chronological order, but its deeper purpose might be to highlight a cause-and-effect relationship between events. Similarly, a scientific article might be structured as a step-by-step explanation of a process, yet its true intent could be to argue for the significance of a discovery rather than merely describe how it works. Teachers should guide students in recognizing both the surface-level organization and the underlying meaning, helping them analyze how an author’s choices shape understanding.

By explicitly discussing text structure while encouraging students to think critically about the author’s intent, teachers can ensure that students move beyond simply recognizing patterns to fully engaging with the deeper message of the text.

Teacher Preparation is Key

In order to effectively scaffold complex texts, careful preparation is essential. Teachers must take the time to read the text in advance, identifying potential challenges that students may face, such as unfamiliar vocabulary, complex sentence structures, or abstract concepts.

Annotating areas where students might struggle allows educators to plan purposeful stopping points for discussion, comprehension checks, and strategy instruction. This preparation also ensures that teachers can anticipate moments to model fluency, clarify difficult passages, and guide students in making connections to prior knowledge.

Additionally, planning scaffolded supports — such as graphic organizers, vocabulary instruction, or pre-reading activities — creates a structured approach that gradually leads students toward independent comprehension.

When teachers thoughtfully prepare, they set students up for success, transforming complex texts from an obstacle into an opportunity for deep, meaningful learning.

Before you go …

• BLOG: Why Older Students Struggle with Reading: Common Skill Deficits and How to Spot Them in the Classroom
• PODCAST: Leveraging the Science of Reading with Older Students
• EBOOK: Science of Reading Simplified

References

• Betts, E.A. (1946). Foundations of reading instruction, with emphasis on differentiated guidance. New York: American Book
• Brown, L. T., Mohr, K. A. J., Wilcox, B. R., & Barrett, T. S. (2017). The effects of dyad reading and text difficulty on third-graders’ reading achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, 111(5), 541–553. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2017.1310711
• Lupo, S.M., Strong, J.Z., & Smith, K.C. (2019). Struggle Is Not a Bad Word: Misconceptions and Recommendations About Readers Struggling With Difficult Texts. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(5), 551–560. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.926
• Shanahan, T. (2019). Why children should be taught to read with more challenging text. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 44(2), 17-23.