Mr. Dosa, a history teacher, is meeting students' needs by providing sentence starters and a word bank to struggling readers. What is this called?

The provision of sentence starters and a word bank to assist struggling readers is an example of scaffolding. Scaffolding in an educational context refers to the support and resources that teachers provide to help students achieve a deeper understanding of the material and enhance their learning. This approach allows students to build their skills gradually while ensuring that they do not feel overwhelmed.

By offering sentence starters, Mr. Dosa is helping students organize their thoughts and develop their writing by providing a framework. The word bank serves as a vocabulary aid, enabling students to expand their language use without the fear of being stuck due to limited vocabulary. This targeted support encourages greater independence as students progress in their reading and writing abilities.

Other options like grouping, direct instruction, and cross-curricular instruction represent different educational strategies but do not specifically describe the targeted, supportive approach of scaffolding as it applies in this context. Grouping involves arranging students into different sets for collaborative learning, direct instruction focuses on explicit teaching methods, and cross-curricular instruction brings together concepts from various subjects. While all of these methods are valuable in education, they do not align with the targeted support that scaffolding provides to help individual students succeed.