Scripted Curriculums, good or bad?

I think you can definitely still effectively implement each of the five lesson planning goals even if you have a scripted curriculum. At my school our math is scripted, we use trailblazers. At the beginning of each unit in the book it lists the goals for the students for the different lessons for each unit. There are also pre-assessment questions that you can use that include a variety of school the students should already know and adding a few more steps which will lead to what the next lessons are going to teach. I think since the units are scripted the idea of anticipating confusion could go both ways. It could be hard because all of the students learn differently and do things differently. I think it could be easy though because the book prompts you for some questions that the students might ask and it then lists teacher responses for these questions. It could then be hard if a student asks you a question that you are not prepared for you may not have an answer ready. Asking questions would be easy because it gives you sample questions to ask the students in order to guide their learning and their thoughts. In order for a teacher to manage classroom talk it is important to read over the scripted lessons beforehand so that you can maintain the language that they use in the books. It is important to use the same language so that the students will become familiar with it and will eventually be able to use it in their own talk. Planning the implementation would be easy with a scripted curriculum like trailblazers because it gives you worksheets and homework that go along with the lessons. There are small pictures of them in the lesson book and there is also a master book that has the master copies of the worksheets. Using worksheets also is important in a lesson because it gives the students something to use personally in their learning of the ideas versus being in a whole group and looking at the overhead. I think also that have a worksheet gives the students opportunities to use manipulatives and also to practice what they have been learning.

I think a good teacher can make an effective lesson plan with whatever resources he or she has. If you do have a scripted curriculum there are ways to personalize the lessons while still maintaining the value of the lessons.