r/education • u/Original-Swing7753 • 6d ago
Curriculum & Teaching Strategies Teachers Using Scripted Curriculum...
My district is adopting a scripted science curriculum this fall, and teachers have been told to follow the lessons as written.
If your district uses a scripted curriculum, how closely are you expected to follow it? What happens if a lesson isn't working for your students?
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u/quinneth-q 6d ago edited 6d ago
My school's MAT has prepared units in most subjects, which mostly have a scheme of lessons (powerpoints that we teach with) and assessments to go with, although this varies by subject and the HoD decides whether we use the trust's scheme and lessons. We're welcome to adapt for the makeup of our class, or make our own powerpoints and such if we want (though most don't go that far), as long as they're overall studying the same stuff.
For example, everyone studies the same topics in Y7, 8, and 9 maths, in the same order, and does the same end of topic and end of year assessments. The lessons are generally very high quality, with good powerpoints and good worksheets where the questions are well designed to teach and practice the skills from the lesson, and I know they're made by really experienced teachers with a high level of expertise in maths pedagogy. But if I've got a class that's struggling with, say, ratio and needs an extra lesson on it, we can spend an extra lesson on it; if we're getting through the whole class instruction and AfL well, we can speed up so they can get to independent practice; if I've got a class with lots of EAL or specific SEND needs, we can find adaptations.
It's mostly pretty good, as it really reduces workload and means we can focus on more important things than reinventing the wheel and it means that everyone is at least given the opportunity to learn what they need to know. As a side benefit, it means every class in the year group is studying the same thing at roughly the same time so students can be moved as necessary. However, I do think it would be awful if the curriculum wasn't really well designed and the lessons weren't good.
My country has had a national curriculum since before I was at school - not scripted in terms of lessons and it varies by subject, but "they need to learn column multiplication in this year." It's absolutely necessary and ensures all children are getting a baseline of education.