30+ Scaffolding Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension

Comprehension is often described as the “ultimate goal” of reading. But how can we help our students to achieve that goal?

Many factors contribute to a student’s reading comprehension, such as their decoding skills, vocabulary skills, and background knowledge. However, these elements by themselves do not guarantee reading comprehension. A student with strong decoding skills, a robust vocabulary, and ample background knowledge may still be puzzled when they encounter a text with an unfamiliar narrative structure, new text features, or novel figurative language.

Especially with complex texts, students may need additional reading comprehension strategies, such as recognizing text structures, annotating and taking notes, or visualizing, to deepen their understanding of a text.

One way educators can help equip students with these essential skills is through targeted scaffolding techniques. Scaffolding strategies that support reading comprehension can be delivered before, during, and after students read a text.

Keep reading to see examples of scaffolding techniques to use before, during, and after reading — or complete the form on this page to download your free copy of 30+ Scaffolding Strategies for Strengthening Comprehension.

How to Improve Reading Comprehension: 5 Examples of Effective Scaffolding

Before Reading Comprehension Strategies

Comprehension work can begin even before students read the first word of a text. Using one or more of these scaffolding techniques before students start to read can be an effective way to set them up for success with complex, grade-level texts.

Scaffolding Before Reading Comprehension Practice: Teach Text Features

Many texts, especially nonfiction texts, will include key information within text features. Before students practice reading comprehension with a text that contains text features, consider:

• Explicitly previewing each type of text feature that students will encounter
• Modeling how to read the text feature, including how to locate where information is contained within the text feature
• Explaining what kind of information is most often provided by that type of text feature

Common text features include:

• Captions
• Headings
• Photographs
• Diagrams
• Illustrations
• Maps

During Reading Comprehension Strategies

While students are reading, there are multiple skills and strategies they can apply that can improve their comprehension of complex, grade-level text.

Scaffolding During Reading Comprehension Practice: Five-Finger Retelling

If you have students who struggle with literal reading comprehension, try this reading comprehension practice activity.

Have students summarize the text using the following five sentence frames, which will help them identify the who, where, and what of narrative texts. They should start with all fingers extended and put one finger down as they complete each frame:

• The characters are ________________.
• The story takes place in ________________.
• In the beginning, ________________.
• In the middle, ________________.
• At the end, ________________.

Tip: This reading comprehension strategy can be especially effective for your multilingual learners!

Scaffolding During Reading Comprehension Practice: Chunk and Chew

This reading comprehension practice activity can help reinforce students’ inferential and evaluative reading comprehension skills, especially with longer and more challenging texts.

Start by intentionally breaking the text into smaller, more digestible “chunks” for students. A chunk may be a single paragraph or short passage that presents new information.

Model how to further break up the chunk into its component elements (key phrases, important vocabulary, etc.) and then how to break down those elements to distill their meaning (using the reading comprehension strategies and vocabulary strategies you have already explicitly taught students). Then give students a few minutes to “chew” on this new information.

Be sure to check for understanding before moving onto the next chunk.

Tip: As students become more familiar with this method, they can work through their chunks in small groups, pairs, or independently.

After Reading Comprehension Strategies

After students have finished reading a complex text, discussions and other post-reading activities can help reinforce and extend comprehension.

Scaffolding After Reading Comprehension Practice: Share New Learning

One type of post-reading discussion you can have with students is the “Share New Learning” activity.

Have each student present one new fact or idea they learned from the text. Give other students the opportunity to raise their hand if that fact or idea was also a new learning for them. Encourage students to discuss how this new learning may relate back to or build upon information they already knew from prior readings or experiences.

Tip: Before students start reading, tell students that you will have a “Share New Learning” discussion after they finish reading. Encourage students to take notes on their new learnings as they read so they are prepared to share their insights with their classmates.

Scaffolding After Reading Comprehension Practice: Make a Mini-Book

Try this post-reading activity as a culminating project for a longer complex text or when students read multiple texts on the same topic.

Have students write and illustrate a mini-book on the topic they read about. For fiction, have students think about the most meaningful scenes to illustrate. For nonfiction, have students identify the most important diagrams, maps, or other text features to include.

Tip: Make this a collaborative effort! Assign each student a specific chapter or passage in the text. Have the student make a single page that summarizes the chapter. At the end, gather all the pages together into a complete mini-book.

Looking for more reading comprehension strategies and scaffolds to support your students’ success with grade-level text?

Complete the form on this page to download your free copy of 30+ Scaffolding Strategies for Strengthening Comprehension.

More Ways to Build Reading Comprehension Strategies and Other Key Literacy Skills

Are you looking for more targeted or intensive resources to accelerate students' reading skills and strengthen their ability to understand complex, grade-level texts?

Supplement Core Instruction with Adaptive Personalized Learning

You can give every student truly personalized instruction and practice with SuccessMaker® Reading. Designed to supplement core ELA instruction in Grades K-8, SuccessMaker targets essential reading skills such as phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension, plus spelling and grammar.

Because SuccessMaker Reading continuously adapts based on each student’s performance, the program works just like a personal tutor! For example, as students practice reading comprehension with nonfiction and fiction passages, a built-in coach models metacognitive reading comprehension strategies for them. Then, as students complete comprehension exercises, the program automatically provides the right targeted scaffolding, feedback, or additional instruction, right when they need it, based on their individual responses.

Take your free guided tour of SuccessMaker Reading.

Provide Students with Intensive, Teacher-Led Intervention

For striving adolescent readers who are two or more years below grade level, iLit45™ is an intensive, teacher-led reading intervention program that uses a research-proven instructional model to accelerate learning. In fact, iLit45 is proven to accelerate reading growth by two years in a single school year!

Designed specifically for students in Grades 6-12, iLit45 centers instruction around rigorous and relevant grade-level texts, giving students the opportunity to actively engage with authentic literature such as novels, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and more. Explicit instruction, guided and independent practice, and robust scaffolds help strengthen students’ reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and foundational reading skills, building up the strong literacy and writing skills that all students need to succeed in secondary and beyond.

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