ABSTRACT
In education, “scaffolding” means helping learners do what they can’t yet do by themselves, an important step toward independence (Jerome Bruner, in Ninio & Bruner, 1978; Bruner, 1986). It’s like training wheels on a bicycle or water wings for swimming, a temporary support. For me, scaffolding means genuinely teaching, not merely assigning and grading: guiding apprentice learners in developing knowledge and skills. In writing instruction, scaffolding includes guiding writers from the process of discovering ideas through editing and sharing work with a broader audience – until eventually they can do this with only the feedback and editing that we published writers enjoy. Where and how does grammar instruction serve as scaffolding for writers and writing? Over decades, I have developed and refined my own answers, an evolving process that continues yet today.
