Technology and engineering education is filled with so many varied topics that it is almost impossible to break them into grade-level courses. As a result, courses are often mixed with all grade levels and all types of learners. On rare occasions, one course section pops into the schedule that is all one level. When this occurs, it may become necessary to reevaluate the practices that have been implemented in the classroom related to instruction, discipline, and policy. For this study, the population of graphic design students consisted of primarily freshman students. In this case, the researcher was faced with an entire section of graphic design with primarily freshman students. In the past, there had been freshmen mixed into other sections without any problems. However, this class posed an interesting problem: traditional instructional methods were not working. This section of mostly freshman students was falling behind the usual curricular pace for the class. They were struggling to work with the independence that they are granted as high school students. They were also struggling with following the directions given to them in the manner traditional for this course, which was backed by past practices. With this new demographic, it became necessary to evaluate alternative instructional practices in relation to freshman students. In this article, the author describes how he looked into scaffolded instructional models as a means to increasing student understanding and mastery.