The CATESOL Journal

In response to the current climate of accountability, many districts have turned to scripted reading programs as the solution to literacy instruction in schools with populations of students with high needs. While scripted programs may be beneficial for some students, they often limit a teacher’s ability to create active learning environments to facilitate the second language learning and literacy skills in English Learners (ELs). Specifically, this paper critically examines three aspects of scripted programs that include whole group instruction, repetition, and pacing guides to understand how ELs experience these lessons. Additionally, it describes how one first-grade teacher in a highly diverse urban school has been able to embed strategies that work for ELs within a classroom guided by scripts.