I mean, I utterly LOATHED scaffolded assignments as a student, but that was mostly because the scaffolding was too one-size-fits-all and didn't allow for stuff like, "Here are the seven sources I've found and am reading/watching/interviewing, here's a two page summary of my current impressions, and right now I think my thesis will be X but that might change depending on what else I learn from my sources," rather than, "My thesis is absolutely 100% going to be X and here are my five index cards of bullet-point notes for each of my seven sources supporting my thesis, handwritten in blue ballpoint pen."

The general idea of process and checkpoints, however, is perfectly sound!