A two-tiered scaffolding model can be used to explain the complex and critical relationships between the teaching and learning of teachers and the students they teach. The first tier of scaffolding is a teacher, or someone else who qualifies as a more capable other, providing support for a student. The second tier depicts the support necessary to assist an adult in supporting a child in a manner consistent with the method located on the first tier. The two-tiered scaffold illustrates the integral, interactive relationship between the processes used to prepare experts and the method used to teach novices. Reading Recovery, a supplemental program for first-grade children who are at risk of reading failure, can be seen as an instantiation of Vygotsky's theoretical framework and illustrates the two-tiered scaffolding model. (Twenty-seven references are attached.) (Author/SR)