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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.

Location: Dearborn, MI

Years of Teaching: 12

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

Six words to describe myself as an educator are: patient, enthusiastic, consistent, attentive, thoughtful, and persistent.

I was drawn to the mindset that all students
can become readers. I tried out the routines
from Reading Apprenticeship little by little,
and I started to see results. I live within
the framework now.”

What drew you to Reading Apprenticeship?

I was lucky to take a teaching position with a district that values Reading Apprenticeship. After I attended my first training, I signed up to attend three more times in following years! I was drawn to the mindset that all students can become readers. I tried out the routines from Reading Apprenticeship little by little, and I started to see results. I live within the framework now.

What is your go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine?

My go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine is Think-Pair-Share.

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

One of many “aha!” moments I have experienced with Reading Apprenticeship came from shifting to a student-led classroom. As I facilitated more, the students had more opportunities. I remember a moment with my 10th-grade class when a student came up to the document camera to share a Talking to the Text sample from an article. Other students were learning from the schema this particular student brought to the article and then shared with the class. We all learned, and it meant so much more coming from a student who just happened to share that day.

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

Slowing down to honor the framework pays off.

What are you reading right now?

I am reading The Book Thief with a small group of 6th graders, The Maze Runner with a small group of 7th graders, and Girl, Woman, Other on my own.

Location: Chicago, IL

Years of Teaching: 9

What drew you to Reading Apprenticeship?

I was drawn to Reading Apprenticeship (RA) because I knew I wanted to cultivate a culture of literacy learning in my mathematics classroom but did not have the full background as a humanities teacher to do so. The school I was working at was using RA to drive their school-wide instructional goals but noticed my fellow mathematics teachers were not as engaged in the work. I dove in, started mapping out ways to be a RA teacher in a math class, and started to feel comfortable with the routines. In first learning sessions, I loved that the facilitators were open to my questions about incorporating the moves in math classrooms.

My classroom, vibe, energy were always focused on making sure that the most silenced, marginalized students were at the forefront of my planning. In addition to that, issues affecting them as Black students always superseded the mathematics lesson.”

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

Facilitator. I do not believe in being the “sage on the stage” at all unless I’m in an actual play or musical. My instruction was always centering the students, their learning, their emotions, and their humanity before anything else.

Curator. I create safe spaces for kids to be their full selves unapologetically even in the usual rigid mathematics classroom. Allowing students to meditate, show emotions, dance, or showcase their thinking were some of the ways I created safety.

Fave/Bro/Mr. C/LenDog. These were nicknames my students bestowed upon me once they knew they could be comfortable with me. They would affectionally call me these names within any setting.

Black. My classroom, vibe, energy were always focused on making sure that the most silenced, marginalized students were at the forefront of my planning. In addition to that, issues affecting them as Black students always superseded the mathematics lesson. We would watch news coverage, have discussions, and brainstorm ways we can work towards our own abolition in school settings.

Reflector. I always honored time to reflect on lessons and instruction. After a good or bad class, test, grading term, etc. my students and I would always engage in activities to help us accentuate our positive behaviors and work on plans towards our growth areas. Students would reflect on their performance, my performance and vice versa during a whole classroom.

Questioner. My instructional framework, daily reflections, and interactions always started with me or my students asking a question. I was inspired by a lyric from Erykah Badu’s On & On, “The man that knows something, knows that he knows nothing at all.”

What is your go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine?

Definitely Reading Strategies List.

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

We were beginning our lesson on quadratic functions and I had asked students to just read and talk to the notes packets as they constructed their knowledge. We built four reading strategies lists for just two pages of text, because there was information, examples, charts, and graphs in the notes. After we built the list, at least five students had epiphanies on strategies they wanted to employ in their future lessons to address the texts could not access as deeply initially.

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

Reading Apprenticeship is a collection of tools and routines to foster cultures where students deeply read texts from wherever their positionalities are.

What are you reading right now?

I am currently reading Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness and Schooling in San Francisco

Location: Long Island, New York City

Years of Teaching: 13

What drew you to Reading Apprenticeship?

What drew me to Reading Apprenticeship was the holistic approach of the framework. I especially was drawn to the notion of thinking about what you’re thinking about as you are reading. The active listening model also resonated with me.

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

The six words I would use to describe myself as an educator are: connected, Black Excellence, warm, demanding, funny, and memorable. Being an educator is an extension of my truest self and that is who I bring to my students each and every day.

What is your go-to Reading Apprenticeship routine?

Hands-down: Metacognitive Bookmark!

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

I have too many to choose just one but one that stands out in my mind is watching my students, after several months of me modeling this strategy with them, lead out a think aloud — charting and all — without any assistance from me. A few months prior, these students would push back against reading. Now, they were leading. That’s the kind of success my students and I have experienced with Reading Apprenticeship.

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

Reading Apprenticeship provides a safe space for older students to hone in on their literacy acquisition.

What are you reading right now?

I am currently reading Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson.

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To learn more about Vivett and her work, visit www.vivettdukes.com

To attend a Reading Apprenticeship training led by Vivett, check out Essentials I and register for the course kicking off June 28-30, 2021.