No Questions for You!
I remember the first time I heard teachers talk about scripted lessons and pacing charts. It was a group of Detroit teachers who were pursuing National Board Certification, and I had a hard time comprehending what they were telling me--every teacher on the same lesson, subdividing a pre-set block of time into prescribed, timed single-skill segments. Actual, physical scripts that they were compelled to read, no paraphrasing. Compliance monitors, who showed up at random times with clipboards. Objectives written on the board, and "progress" charted on the wall.
But--I asked the teachers--what if your students are beyond the assigned daily lesson and don't need it repeated? What if they've already got that, and need something new to stay focused on this skill or strand? Or what if they need another day of practice to nail something down? Shrugs. You had to follow the pacing chart. Better to be in the "right" place than to slow down and make sure they've got it, or extend a lesson that captured your students' imagination.
Which--when you think about--is the worst possible kind of teaching: following a pedagogical structure and rate set by someone who'd never met your students. Remote
