Reading Apprenticeship

EIR Grant Wraps Up First Year

tables of teachers collaborating on PD

Lorelle Wien

EIR Grant Wraps Up First Year

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More than 200 North Carolina 9th and 10th grade Science, Social Studies, and English Language Arts educators participated in the first year of Reading Apprenticeship North Carolina, reaching over 5,000 students! Participants engaged in both in-person and online training, and district leaders and educators were exceptionally nimble as pandemic related challenges necessitated changes to the learning progression as originally conceived.

Despite the obstacles, teachers were open and enthusiastic in their learning and implementation of Reading Apprenticeship. They were further motivated by the differences they saw in their classroom culture. A Social Studies teacher reported the following: We’ve done well with our establishing a culture where being confused is acceptable and nothing to be ashamed of. Lots of more questions are driving instruction than ever before, which I feel has been the greatest success of RA this year.

Our facilitators and local partners were able to travel to and engage in an in-person day of learning in each district this winter that served to be both engaging and energizing. For many of our participants, this was their first in-person professional development session in more than two years. We saw firsthand the earnest and sincere efforts of these outstanding educators.

One of our districts, Wilkes County, arranged visits to classrooms where Reading Apprenticeship had been implemented with fidelity and skill. Participants were able to observe these wonderful teachers in action with their students and then our team led the debriefing. That kind of creativity and collaborative programming is only possible with rich partnerships with the dedicated district staff and leadership.

Reading Apprenticeship North Carolina will continue to support the learning and implementation of our Framework through Summer in-person learning for our existing cohort and an additional cohort of teachers. We will then move to supporting implementation in online modules in the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. Teacher Leaders have been identified and will be supported to sustain Reading Apprenticeship beyond each district’s two-year commitment.

This project is made possible by the EIR grant from the U.S. Department of Education and supports primarily rural districts in North Carolina. You can learn more about the project here, and more about the evidence of our impact on teacher practice and student learning here.

The last cohort of Reading Apprenticeship North Carolina will launch in Summer 2023. If you are interested in your district participating, please contact: Sam Peters, Program Coordinator, speters2@wested.org.

Diana Mansour, Facilitator

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Location: Michigan

Years of Teaching: 14

If you had to describe yourself as an educator, what six words would you use and why?

Caring, Learner, Leader, Student Advocate, Inspirer, Passionate

 
Reading Apprenticeship helps and empowers students to take control of their own learning and become strong readers and disciplinary experts.”

 

What drew you to Reading Apprenticeship?

I was drawn by the framework. The framework reminds me that I have humans in front of me. I noticed and appreciated that it valued process and granted individuals the time and space to process.

What is your go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine?

A/B Partner Think Aloud

Can you share a story about a time when you or a student had an “aha!” moment with Reading Apprenticeship?

“My first “aha” with Reading Apprenticeship was when I recognized my own reading process, especially with reading figures. As a science reader, I always gravitated towards figures first, yet I always taught them last. It was then that I learned to always recognize my process and help others recognize theirs.

My major “aha!” moment was when my 9th-grade Biology class engaged in sophisticated conversation about Evolution in a way that I don’t even remember myself engaging in as an undergraduate college student. Students were building on and using disciplinary language and vocabulary make meaning and deepen their understanding of the content. I could see and hear their growth in the ways they were thinking and speaking. I knew then that Reading Apprenticeship was a game-changer.”

If you could describe Reading Apprenticeship in a sentence, what would you say?

Reading Apprenticeship helps and empowers students to take control of their own learning and become strong readers and disciplinary experts.

What are you reading right now?

Life as a Leb-neh Lover: The Identity Crisis of a Maybe-Lebanese by Kathy Shalhoub

Sheng Vu, Facilitator

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Interested in learning more about Reading Apprenticeship facilitation? Read on to learn about Sheng and her “why”! Apply to our 2022 Reading Apprenticeship Facilitator in Training program. Applications are due March 31, 2022.

Location: Clovis, CA

Years of Teaching: 8

If you had to describe yourself as an educator, what six words would you use and why?

I would describe myself as a “students first,” “always learning,” “always improving” educator because my students are at the forefront of every professional decision I make. Due to that, I am always looking to learn and improve upon my craft to better help them find success.

Reading Apprenticeship meets students where they are at and is a toolbox of strategies that will help students build confidence and problem solve in reading complex texts across disciplines.”

 

What drew you to Reading Apprenticeship?

What drew me to Reading Apprenticeship is that it teaches students to push through the struggle and develop grit and problem-solving skills without constantly relying on the teacher for help. Reading Apprenticeship improves literacy across all disciplines and allows students to share whatever their level of insight is collaboratively while meeting students where they are at so that all students, no matter their varying abilities, are able to be contributing learners and teachers in the discourse of the learning taking place in the classroom. Reading Apprenticeship not just tackles literacy comprehension in terms of words and reading, but literacy in terms of graphs, charts, images, etc. to help improve literacy across disciplines.

What is your go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine?

“Reading Strategies List” is my go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine!

Can you share a story about a time when you or a student had an “aha!” moment with Reading Apprenticeship?

I was teaching an 11th grade class that had struggling readers and some RSP students. As my class was reading the complex but very powerful “Letter From Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I overheard my students engaging in metacognitive conversations while talking to the text. They were problem solving when they got to difficult parts in order to make sense of the text and they were not afraid to share out when they were confused so their peers could help them out. They were also sharing insights they found on their own that they were proud of to help their peers learn from their insights. “Birmingham” is a complex text and when my students got through the reading and completing the rhetorical analysis task at hand and realized they did not once ask me for help, one of my students said: “Mrs. Vu, you are an amazing teacher!” They had credited me for their comprehension and engagement of this complex text, but they did not realize that I had done nothing but observe them collaborating and working through the “struggle” instead. They had done this all by themselves without having to rely on me, the teacher, for any help so I replied to this student and to the class: “Don’t thank me! You did that all by yourselves. Thank yourselves. That was a hard text and you all did it by yourself!” to which some of them proudly replied “we DID do that all by ourselves!”

If you could describe Reading Apprenticeship in a sentence, what would you say?

Reading Apprenticeship meets students where they are at and is a toolbox of strategies that will help students build confidence and problem solve in reading complex texts across disciplines.

What are you reading right now?

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.

New National Reading Apprenticeship Facilitator Training Opportunity

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Apply to join the 2022 cohort of Reading Apprenticeship Facilitators*.

Reading Apprenticeship is looking for experienced teachers and leaders to join the national cadre of facilitators. This is a unique opportunity to deepen your knowledge of Reading Apprenticeship, connect with colleagues, and lead professional learning for teachers across the country.

The Facilitator in Training (FIT) program is a blended in-person and online learning experience that will prepare you to lead Reading Apprentice institutes with middle and high school teachers. It includes a $1000 stipend and travel to Alameda, California for a summer learning session July 28-29, 2022. Details:

Applications are due by March 31. Please email Irisa Charney Sirott with any questions.

*Reading Apprenticeship facilitators work as independent consultants contracted through WestEd.

Register Now for 2022 Professional Learning Events

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If you are seeking new ways to get your students reading and working with challenging, content area texts, Reading Apprenticeship is for you. In 2022 we will be offering both online and in-person events! Read more or register for any of the events via the links below. Not sure where to start? Check out our get started page or contact us.

Open to middle school, high school, and college educators of all subject areas:

  • Essentials I In-Person (Jun 28–30 or Aug 2–4) will introduce you to the framework and core routines you can use to develop students’ literacy and social-emotional learning skills.
  • Essentials I Online (Jan 11–13, Jun 27–29, or Aug 3–5) kicks off with three consecutive days of 2-hour synchronous sessions, and then continues with 1.5-hour monthly meetings throughout the school year.
  • Essentials II Online (Jun 27–29) will sharpen your content-area teaching and give you new ways to help your students become more aware of, and articulate about, their own strengths and challenges as they read and make sense of complex text.
  • Note that all online Essentials courses are highly interactive and combine synchronous and asynchronous work. Participants experience the kinds of text-based, collaborative teaching and learning they will enact with their students.

Asynchronous courses designed with college educators in mind:

  • Reading Apprenticeship 101 (Jan 17–Mar 6, Mar 14–May 1, Jun 13–Jul 31, or Sep 12–Oct 30) is designed to provide an introduction to the Reading Apprenticeship framework with practical classroom assignments to “make it real.” Guidance and feedback will be provided to you by colleagues in the course and by a facilitator with extensive Reading Apprenticeship and coaching expertise.
  • Reading Apprenticeship in College Writing (Jan 17–Mar 13 or Jun 13–Aug 7) will deepen your understanding of the Reading Apprenticeship framework, particularly the role of metacognitive conversation in the successful implementation of redesigned college writing courses.

Registration open now! Visit the links above or our services page to learn more. To learn about services at your site or course buyouts, contact our Partnership Development Director, Stephanie Patterson, at (310) 367-3892.

A note on federal funding:

As part of the federal relief laws passed by Congress in 2020 and 2021, financial support is available to districts and schools through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds. These funds offer schools and districts the flexibility to address their critical areas of need as they support their students, educators, and communities around various accelerated learning efforts. One area in which your leadership team can use these funds is to address unfinished learning through evidence-based professional learning frameworks, such as Reading Apprenticeship. If you are interested in leveraging this one-time funding to introduce teachers to the Reading Apprenticeship approach, please contact us.

Reading Apprenticeship Awarded SEED Grant

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Reading Apprenticeship has been awarded a $3.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to improve subject-area teaching and learning at the secondary level in Arizona, Michigan, and Texas. The two-year grant (2021-23) from the department’s Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, enables WestEd to deepen Reading Apprenticeship teacher professional learning in three locations that were part of a 2018-2021 SEED grant project.

“This new grant will enable us to identify and support best practices for working with district, regional, and state leaders and teachers to sustain inquiry-based professional learning at the secondary level,” says Literacy Director Dr. Linda Friedrich.

Because the grant includes a qualitative evaluation that builds on a student impact study already underway, it also gives Reading Apprenticeship leaders a unique opportunity to learn more about how our teaching and learning strategies supported teachers and students during the COVID years in which adaptation was needed to accommodate online and hybrid settings.

The grant will support WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship staff to work both directly with teachers, and through established local partners, with the aim of building local capacity and sustainability for enduring professional learning in districts serving diverse and low-wealth student populations. The project will engage teachers, students, and leaders via the following partnerships:

If you would like to learn more about the project, contact Associate Director Mary Stump at mstump@wested.org.