Scripted teaching

Scripted teaching or scripted instruction refers to commercial reading programs that have highly structured lessons, often with specific time allotments for teaching specific skills, and often word-for-word scripts of what the teacher is to say. Scripted instruction has often been advocated for schools where teachers have had inadequate teacher training and is also seen as way to standardize the quality of instruction. Critics say that such programs stifle teachers’ creativity, undermine teachers’ expertise, and fail to provide for the diverse needs of many classrooms. Advocates see it as the easiest way to provide teachers with the essential elements of effective reading instruction. Scripted instruction has also been applied to preparation of lessons in many other subject matter areas.

One widely used program using scripts is the the Success for All reading instruction program. This program, designed by Johns Hopkins University educator Bob Slavin for use in the mid 1980's in failing Baltimore inner city schools requires a dedicated 90 minutes of reading instruction each day. Teachers must follow a pre-ordained lesson plan that has every minute of time filled with specific activities designed to teach reading to every child in the class with an extensive use of phonics. Reaction of teachers has ranged from enthusiastic acceptance to bitter resentment.

Scripted instruction has been an integral part of the direct instruction (DI) approach to education which has been presented as a structured alternative to the constructionist approaches to teaching such as discovery learning.

There is extensive additional information on scripted teaching available on the International Reading Association website.

External links

* [http://www.reading.org International Reading Association]

* [http://www.pbs.org/makingschoolswork/sbs/sfa/lessons.html "Do Scripted Lessons Work or Not" by Sarah Colt, The article describes both positive and negative reactions to using the scripts in the Success for All reading program]