In this paper, the authors raise concerns regarding the use of cognitive strategy instruction (CSI) in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) classrooms. The authors recognize the potential benefits afforded by CSI. At the same time, they argue that counter to the intentions of those who have developed CSI, it may be implemented in ways that exacerbate current standardizing and skills-based instructional trends in literacy instruction. They outline three areas of caution, including "in the head" understandings about reading, overly prescribed and inflexible ways of implementing CSI, and a distancing of CSI from its original purpose--meaning making. For each caution, they offer possibilities for implementing CSI in ways that nurture independence and flexibility and recognize the socially and historically situated strategies that students may bring to bear in the classroom. Concerns and recommendations for practice are grounded in examples from the authors' previous research on bilingual children's reading and reading instruction in a CLD classroom.