The acquisition and refinement of cognitive strategies are described as a collaborative effort between teachers and students that is facilitated by scaffolded instruction. Although dialogue does not currently have a preeminent role in our classrooms, it can promote the kinds of opportunities necessary for the teacher to provide scaffolded instruction. To support and illustrate this point, a program of research investigating the use of dialogue to teach comprehension strategies is reviewed with particular attention to its extension to first-grade students at risk for academic difficulty. Transcripts from this research are presented to capture the quality of dialogue that fosters scaffolded instruction.