Post-scripts: Teaching reading in the aftermath of prescriptive curriculum policies

Maniates, Helen, & Mahiri, Jabari. (2011). Post-scripts: Teaching reading in the aftermath of prescriptive curriculum policies. Language Arts, 89(1), 10-20.

This article is a case study of one elementary school teacher’s efforts to adapt a mandated, scripted reading program to better meet the learning needs of her class of third graders in a segregated, “underserved” urban elementary school in California. Although the teacher, “Ms. Sanchez”, initially tried to implement the prescribed program with high fidelity, she came to believe the program was not responsive to her students, particularly in the assumptions the program made about her students’ prior knowledge. She did not believe the program offered enough scaffolding or practice to enable her students to become independent readers and learners. She did not see in the program the “gradual release of responsibility” that would enable her students to achieve independence. In response to those growing beliefs, Ms. Sanchez began making adaptations. In some cases she added things to the scripted program, such as examples that tapped into students’ prior knowledge (e.g., talking about the main idea in a text as analogous to the meat in a hamburger). Sometimes she made decisions to omit pieces of the program the children did not relate to. There were also times when she followed the program as scripted. The important thing is that Ms. Sanchez made these kinds of decisions, and she made them based upon what she knew about the children in her class—who they were, what they knew and cared about, and how they learned best.

The authors state that even though some of the strictures imposed upon schools by No Child Left Behind and Reading First are beginning to relax, the scripted, prescriptive reading programs that came from those laws have become the norm in many schools, and particularly in schools like the one where Ms. Sanchez teaches. Teachers MAY have a bit more freedom now to adapt instruction to their students, but the authors seem to believe that this adaptation may not be happening in many cases. In truth, the best teachers have continued to adapt scripted programs in spite of mandates, even though it took guts to do so, and many developed creative ways of working around, and some might say subverting, the scripted programs and the imposition of “fidelity checks.” There also have always been those teachers who will conform to any programs requirements without question, and who are either too afraid or too lazy (or both) to ask hard questions, to make adaptations, or to take a stand for the sake of their students. These two kinds of teachers existed before No Child Left Behind, and they will exist long after that infamous law has subsided into history and been replaced by other controversial education laws.