Day One: Are You Following the Script?
Today was Day One in the script of the new reading program we started thisnyear. Not to be confused with Monday (which, obviously, it wasn’t). Unlessnschool is cancelled due to bad weather, next Tuesday (Feb. 11) will Day Onenagain in our five day reading cycle. But our county is having an instructionnsupport day on February 18; students stay home that day, and when they come backnon Tuesday (Feb. 19) it will be Day Five. Day One will get bumped tonWednesday…
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Such are the joys of a scripted curriculum. We used to have spelling tests onnFridays. Now we have them on Day Five, whatever day of the week that happens tonbe. It took some getting used to, but it works okay now that everyone (includingnthe parents) is used to it.
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I’m a member of the International ReadingnAssociation. They have a listserv that I subscribe to and, frankly, thenconcept of a scripted curriculum has taken a beating there in the last year ornso. Among the complaints:
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The authors of this or that curriculum can’t really know and understand mynkids (all of whom are unique, different from other kids in the world).n
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A scripted curriculum curtails academic freedom (a complaint usuallynaccompanied with a degree of emotion).
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Educators in the classroom have more “real world” knowledge of what needsnto be taught and how it needs to be presented.
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You get the idea…
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We’ve used our new, scripted reading curriculum (I won’t mention the company)nsince the start of this school year. Personally, I think it’s a step forwardnfrom the past. It provides a degree of continuity in an environment where ansignificant number of our kids are transient and move every few months tonanother school in the county. It provides some level of assurance that we arenactually implementing recent research in our reading classrooms. For example, itnscripts in tasks for building background knowledge related to a story – annessential (but sometimes overlooked) component of comprehension. It providesnshared tools for monitoring student progress. It provides a measure of qualityncontrol.
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It also, to be candid, makes it easier for an administrator to decide whethernteachers are doing their jobs. If my boss comes in tomorrow and figures out thatnwe’re not on Day Two there may well be weeping and gnashing of teeth. At thenvery least, some profound explanation is likely to be required. Heaven help menif that becomes a regular occurrence. If I am at least on the right day, my bossncan now easily assess whether I am teaching the script. It is not anword-for-word script; but it is pretty explicit as to what activities take placentoday, what graphic organizers get used, how much time students are to have fornthis or that activity, what assessments are to be employed, etc.
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So to begin to evaluate my performance, my boss can ask a simple, immediatenquestion: “Is he following the script?” In the past my boss had to ask, “Is whatnhe’s doing working?” That was a far more difficult question to answer.
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Today we started a five day “week” that emphasizes the skill of generalizingnand practices the comprehension strategy of prediction. Day One always includesna pretest on this week’s spelling words. Day One always includes a read aloudnthat develops listening skills. Our question for the week has to do with hownpeople adapt to their physical limitations. We introduced vocabulary for thenstory. We used our SmartBoard to begin a concept web that we’ll return tonthroughout the week to help reinforce background knowledge. And even thoughnwe’re trying to impart reading skills during this time, most of this week’sncontent is science oriented in our daily reading block.
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I understand the complaints that people have about working with a scriptedncurriculum. As we climb through the grades, I think those complaints are morenvalid in high school than they are in kindergarten.
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After six months with our particular reading curriculum, at the moment I’m anfan of it. We’ll see how the year finishes out…
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Greg Cruey, Guest Blogger
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