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:

• FIT Program Description
• Benefits & Commitments
• Online Application

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

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

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:

• Wayne County RESA leaders who serve 33 districts in the Detroit, Michigan area.
• Mission CISD, a school-district in south Texas serving about 16,000 students in the City of Mission and the neighboring communities of Alton, Palmhurst, and McAllen.
• The Arizona State Department of Education – Secondary Literacy.

If you would like to learn more about the project, contact Associate Director Mary Stump at [email protected].

Dr. Linda Friedrich, Director of Literacy at WestEd, was invited by the Alabama Literacy Network’s Podcast to discuss all things Reading Apprenticeship, the importance of life-long literacy, her own experiences as a reader and writer, and much more.

Check out the thought-provoking recording below and learn more about the Reading Apprenticeship approach here.

More than 700 teachers in Arizona, California, Michigan, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin will be engaging in Reading Apprenticeship professional learning this summer. Teachers will experience and learn new ways to establish a positive learning community with student strengths and texts at the center. Teachers are engaging in three days of learning this summer, followed by additional inquiry into disciplinary literacy via monthly online networks throughout the school year facilitated by Reading Apprenticeship experts.

The Reading Apprenticeship team is thrilled to be working with so many middle and high school educators from across the country. This project is made possible by a SEED grant from the U.S. Department of Education. SEED grants are competitive and awarded to programs with a strong evidence base.

You can learn more about the project here, and more about the evidence of our impact on teacher practice and student learning here.

If you are an educator or administrator in one of the states above and would like a team of teachers from your school or district to be involved, we might be able to include you if you contact us very soon! Contact: Mary Stump, Associate Director, [email protected]

Yes, you are at Reading Apprenticeship.org! We launched a new website in 2021 to make it easier for you to find services and resources and to celebrate 25 years of Reading Apprenticeship.

With this new site, we endeavor to provide visitors with accessible ways to learn about our professional learning approach, understand how to get started transforming instruction, and see Reading Apprenticeship in action via implementation stories and videos.

Teachers and instructional leaders and will find useful information about what the professional learning looks like on the services page. Research professionals and district leaders can learn more about our evidence base and ongoing studies on the impact page. The library of resources can now be searched and filtered, so everyone can access many publications and classroom and professional learning tools.

We will be regularly updating the site with resources, publications, and new services and courses, so visit often for the latest updates. You can also get notified of new content by signing up for our quarterly e-bulletin.

As with all of our work, Reading Apprenticeship.org will be kept fresh and relevant via continuous improvement and collaboration. If you cannot find something you are looking for, or would like to see something added to the site, please use the Contact Us form to send us a note and we’ll respond.

The Reading Apprenticeship team at WestEd expresses our sincere appreciation to all of the teachers, staff, students, administrators, researchers, writers, and design professionals who have contributed to this site and its many resources.

EdWeek’s “Learning from Leaders” series features Danielle Kelsick, Chief Academic Officer at Environmental Charter Schools (ECS). Kelsick’s work is a wonderful illustration of how leaders can establish professional learning cultures that help teachers deepen their own knowledge and identity as educators, and also transform their teaching practices, so that all students experience “instruction that pushes them to think deeply and honors their intellectual curiosity.”

The article articulates how Kelsick has kept a focus on teaching and learning, even while navigating the pandemic and confronting anti-blackness. EdWeek notes that ECS staff members are reading Teaching for Black Lives and doing a book study together using Reading Apprenticeship strategies:

The metacognitive processes are helping teachers deepen their understanding … but it’s also symbolic—that not only can anti-racism and instructional rigor coexist as top priorities for a school system, but they can also reinforce each other.”

Teachers are participating in Reading Apprenticeship because this approach, as noted in the article, helped Kelsick find what she had been trying to “piece together over her years in the classroom—giving students the tools they needed to engage deeply with all kinds of texts and ideas.”

To learn more about the ECS and the role of Reading Apprenticeship in transforming teaching and learning, read the article or contact us.