As the 2019 school year kicks into high gear, hundreds of middle and high school teachers are practicing new ways of establishing a classroom culture centered on collaboration, problem solving, and reading challenging texts. Supported by a 2018 SEED grant, teachers in California, Michigan, New York, Texas and Washington are trying out teaching routines they were introduced to this summer in Reading Apprenticeship Institutes. They attended the institutes with cross-disciplinary teams of three to six teachers from their school.

As the SEED grant teachers are learning, getting your students to tackle tough problems with a variety of texts doesn’t mean you just dive into ‘harder books’ right away. In fact, Reading Apprenticeship emphasizes using classroom routines that support the social and personal dimensions of learning, especially at the beginning of the year. When students feel their own life and learning experiences are valued, and that the classroom is a safe place where they can voice confusion and curiosity, the conditions are ripe for challenging, collaborative text-based learning. Yet for many middle and high school teachers, investing precious class time in routines that support social and personal dimensions can make them feel less in control and at odds with “covering content.”

Teachers, just like their students, need safety, support, practice, and guidance as they shift from being transmitters of information to facilitators of learning. For this reason, the teachers participating in the SEED grant professional learning come together throughout the school year in small online professional learning communities (PLCs) facilitated by a Reading Apprenticeship expert. The PLCs are discipline specific and are a safe space for teachers to talk about what they are trying out, what changes they are (or are not) seeing in their students, and to learn new strategies. Teacher practice change is also supported at the school level as local Teacher Leaders facilitate monthly school team meetings focused on inquiry into practice.

Invariably, as they continue to collaborate, reflect, and practice routines that support both social-emotional and academic learning over the school year, teachers of every subject find that the content learning in their classroom has been accelerated – the literacy and collaborative learning routines they practice regularly result in increased student engagement, persistence, and reading comprehension tied to discipline-specific ways of making meaning.

There are really no short cuts. You have to take the time to work on those personal and social skills … and then the higher level stuff comes almost naturally, and almost magically, from it. (Alex, Grade 9 English Teacher, Chicago Public Schools)

If you would like to learn more about how to establish a classroom environment in which students are supported to do more challenging reading, writing, speaking, and listening, check out our resource library.

After almost 30 years of working together to build the Reading Apprenticeship team and its national and international networks of practitioners and researchers, Co-Directors Ruth Schoenbach and Cynthia Greenleaf are stepping down. Ruth will retire on April 19th; Cyndy will stay on as a Senior Research Scientist at WestEd, pursuing several strands of research and policy-related work.

Aida Walqui, Director of WestEd’s Teacher Professional Development Program, reflected on Ruth and Cyndy’s contributions to teaching, learning, and research:

How does an educational initiative intended to build complex reading abilities in adolescents and young people become a flagship service? Bring two immensely talented educators, add intellectual backbone, visionary leadership, strategic efforts which are deliberately implemented and studied, and you get Ruth Schoenbach, Cyndy Greenleaf, and Reading Apprenticeship. More than a million educators and students in middle schools, high schools, and colleges have benefitted from the work initiated by these two amazing individuals. Now, after two decades and a half, the time has come to pass on the baton to new leadership.

WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship team is thrilled to welcome our new director, Linda Friedrich, who comes to us after over 16 years at the National Writing Project, most recently as Director of Research and Evaluation.

Linda brings a career-long commitment to engaging teachers and other educators as partners in reform and research for the purpose of creating more equitable learning outcomes for youth. Linda told us, “I am thrilled to join Reading Apprenticeship and WestEd because of our shared and enduring belief that all young people have the capacity to engage in high levels of literacy and learning. I am honored to be entrusted with the project’s next phase of growth. I promise to remain true to Reading Apprenticeship’s core principles and to build on the sturdy foundation created by Ruth, Cyndy, the project team, and generations of educators.”

While at NWP, Linda co-facilitated the development, implementation, and scale up of the College, Career, and Community Writers Program, which has a proven track record of improving students’ source-based argument writing. She also coauthored How Teachers Become Leaders: Learning from Practice and Research (Teachers College Press, August 2010), coauthored with Ann Lieberman. She brings expertise from her work as a Director of Research at the Coalition of Essential Schools and as a facilitator of professional development and middle school reform at the Philadelphia Education Fund. She earned her Ph.D. in Administration and Policy Analysis at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and her A.B. at Bryn Mawr College, where she majored in history.

When asked about her sources of inspiration for this work, Linda said, “I am inspired every day by the wisdom and dedication of teachers who embrace the challenge of inquiring into their practice to better support learners’ agency and independence.”

We look forward to Linda leading us into a new era of lasting district partnerships, strong research, and development that enables ever deeper support for secondary and college educators in the digital age.