by Emma Fujii
What is the role of reading in deep learning? What counts as “reading” in our digitally-trending culture? This free workshop series invites college educators to explore how the Reading Apprenticeship framework can help us navigate today’s complex landscape and orchestrate active, culturally responsive, and engaged learning experiences for our students.
For more information, click here to visit our services page.
by Emma Fujii
Anyone interested in literacy and professional learning will find great value in this 2023 book edited by Dana Robertson, Leigh Hall, and Cynthia Brock. The introductory chapter provides a concise overview of the essential ‘ingredients’ and challenges involved in high quality professional learning. Each of the following chapters include program descriptions, case studies, and research on transformational teacher learning initiatives situated in culturally, linguistically and geographically diverse places. The chapters are grouped into two parts: 1) Professional Learning as Reflexive Growth-in-Practice and 2) Professional Learning In/Through/With Social Networks and Communities.
Reading Apprenticeship is featured in a chapter written by Cynthia Greenleaf, Gayle Cribb, Mira-Lisa Katz and Mary Stump “Professional Learning Designed to Cultivate Continuous Learning and Innovation.” The authors describe Reading Apprenticeship’s design principles, and they illustrate the power of ‘leading from practice’ by describing the journey of Gayle Cribb.
For a limited time, you can download our chapter at no charge, but we highly recommend you check out the book.
“This book conveys leading-edge ideas. It offers practical ideas for professional learning that ensure teachers and students alike are supported to learn and to sustain their learning….It shares insights that will make such professional growth a reality. This powerful work is a major contribution to the development of teacher learning.”
— Diane Lapp, EdD, San Diego State University
by Emma Fujii
Dear Friends:
The Reading Apprenticeship team salutes the work you all have done in 2022 to improve the learning experiences of secondary and post–secondary students.
It has been so gratifying to work together in person, meeting with partners and colleagues at school sites, conferences, and professional learning events. We have had the great pleasure of working with more than 3,000 educators in districts and college campuses all over the country this year, and we marvel at the work everyone is doing to create supportive, challenging, and text–rich learning experiences for both teachers and students in all subject areas.
As 2022 comes to a close and a new year of learning begins, we want to express our gratitude for your continued partnership and the work you do with students and colleagues every day. We look forward to sharing many new resources and learning experiences with you in 2023.
Warm wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy new year!
Sincerely,
The Reading Apprenticeship Team at WestEd
by Emma Fujii
Conferences are back underway in-person this fall! This is a key time for professionals to celebrate work, solve problems, and share knowledge and resources to improve teaching and learning. Here are just a few of the many opportunities to learn more from teachers and scholars engaged in improving teaching and learning. Please join us at the conferences and share your events on Reading Apprenticeship’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. We will share the presentations and publications as soon as they are available — check back here!
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Presentation: Centering Students’ Voices in Classroom Assessment: Environmental Charter Schools and Reading Apprenticeship Collaboration
Time: 9:00 a.m.–10:15 a.m.
Presenters: Linda Friedrich (WestEd), Bethany Sanabria (Environmental Charter High School), and Jane Wyche-Jonas (Environmental Charter High School)
Description: We will actively explore an essential question through reading, considering classroom examples, and reflecting: How can we make students more central to formative assessment processes to center their voices and turn the intellectual work of literacy learning over to them? We will share assessment tools and processes that we developed.
You can read more about ECS and their exceptional leadership here: https://readingapprenticeship.org/success-story/environmental-charter-schools-ecs/ AND HERE https://readingapprenticeship.org/a-leader-to-learn-from/
Conference schedule: https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/lra/lra22/
A) Wed, November 30, 10:15 to 11:45am (paper session): Crossing boundaries between science and literacy for equitable text use in middle and high school science teaching
Cynthia Greenleaf and Kathleen Hinchman summarize their work with Reading Apprenticeship experts and science teachers which explored the challenges and affordances of integrating science and literacy during the the pandemic. What do your students read and write? How do you help them? Access the curriculum units these science teachers developed here: https://wested.box.com/s/y6c8dmoufqalzqok2y617l0qrkiccnhz
B) Thu, December 1, 7:00 to 8:30am (invitation only): Reading Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Cynthia Greenleaf joins a short list of esteemed literacy researchers: she is being announced as a new inductee into the Reading Hall of Fame! Her big speech will not be this week, so stay tuned for lessons from the master. In the meantime, you can read just a few of her publications by typing “Greenleaf” into the search button on ReadingApprenticeship.org, or see the presentations below and above!
C) Fri, December 2, 8:30 to 10:00am – Innovations in Literacy Professional Learning
Reading Apprenticeship co-founder Cynthia Greenleaf, Associate Director Mary Stump, researcher Mira-Lisa Katz, and educator Gayle Cribb will be part of a forum for the forthcoming book (Feb 2023) from Guildford Press: Innovations in Literacy Professional Learning: Strengthening Equity, Access, and Sustainability. Their chapter describes the foundational principles of WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship program, and “makes it real” with snapshots from the professional journey teacher-school leader-PD designer-facilitator-researcher of Gayle Cribb. Their chapter closes with a challenge the field to replicate this kind of work.
by Emma Fujii
Calling all Science and Engineering teachers! Interested in helping your students become better readers of science texts as they master the goals of your grade level and more? The Reading Apprenticeship approach models discipline-specific literacy skills and establishes routines for discussion and collaboration that tap students’ own experiences.
These 14 units were designed by teams of science educators who use Reading Apprenticeship in their classrooms. The teams were part of a Design Group led by Reading Apprenticeship senior staff members: Dr. Cynthia Greenleaf, Dr. Willard Brown and Heather Howlett. The units are guided by an inquiry question and include detailed lesson steps, student materials, and student work samples from Reading Apprenticeship classrooms.
There is a landing page for each unit on our Resources webpage and unit overviews in the Teacher Materials. The units were designed and tested during the pandemic, so they include digital and in-person resources and teaching routines.
Select units and inquiry questions include:
Explore our library of curriculum resources here.
Select Reading Apprenticeship routines integrated into these units include:
Interested in learning about the unit design process?
Watch the webinar replay of two middle school science educators about how they incorporated literacy supports within Mi-STAR science curriculum units using Reading Apprenticeship strategies, and see how you can use these supports in your own classroom.
The design of the STEM units was supported by a 2018 SEED grant to WestEd from the U.S. Department of Education (Grant U423A180020) and by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the U.S. Department of Education nor the Hewlett Foundation.
Permission to use: The lesson materials open education resources in the Creative Commons (CC BY license). You are free to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the lesson materials and plans as long as you credit the authors for the original creation. The texts in the unit are CC licensed by the authors or public domain. Please credit the original authors for the texts.
by Emma Fujii
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, [email protected].
This site and its contents copyright © WestEd 1995-2024. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Accessibility