Reading Apprenticeship
Lori Ceremuga and Cristine Wagner-Deitch
Literacy through Reading
Apprenticeship®
WestEd’s Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI)
 A professional development and research organization
focusing on improving adolescent literacy across
content areas using Reading Apprenticeship®, a
research-based instructional framework.
Reading Apprenticeship®
 A partnership of expertise between the teacher and
students, drawing on what content area teachers know
and do as skilled discipline-based readers and on
adolescents’ unique and often underestimated
strengths.
Do You Recognize These Students?
 Are inexperienced but
not beginning readers
 View reading as only a
school based activity
 Lack confidence are
are mentally passive
with academic reading
 Appear to have limited
knowledge of topics in
school texts.
 Have limited
comprehension when
they do read academic
texts
 Are not held
accountable for much
reading
 Expend a lot of energy
covering up what they
don’t understand
Keeping Those Children in Mind
 Write down one or two things you hope to learn over
the next four days to help those students
 Pair-Share
 Share Out Large Group
Exploring the RA Framework

Each small group has a quote from Chapter Two of Reading for Understanding.

Talk about the Quote: In your small group, take a few minutes to reflect on the
quote and talk about it. (5 minutes)

Locate the Quote: In your copy of Reading for Understanding, locate the quote on
the page referenced in Chapter Two. Read the section that contains the quote. (5
minutes)

Make a Poster: In your small group, have another conversation about the quote in
context. On your poster, attach your quote and write three or more comments that
reflect your responses. When you are done, hang your poster on the wall. (10
minutes)

Gallery Walk: Walk around the room and at each poster read the quote and the
responses to it. On a sticky note, add your own response or question and attach it
to the poster. (10-15 minutes total)

Whole Group Discussion: As a whole group, share your thoughts about the
interacting dimensions of Reading Apprenticeship classrooms. How has your
thinking changed (or not) as a result of these conversations? (10 minutes)
Debrief the Process
 The Content
 What caught your attention?
 What issues/questions did you notice as your read and
responded?
 What new ideas did you encounter?
 The Process
 What did we do?
 How did we do it?
 How did it support your reading/learning?
How is it Related to RA?
 Basic Elements of RA Routines
 Engaging interest with a schema warm-up (K of the KWL)
 Supported by group discussion
 Building rigor and challenge through critical analysis while
making entry points for every student to participate
 Addressing multiple goals of content learning and literacy
skills
 Eliciting independent responses in a safe place
Related to RA Continued…
 Repeated readings to support silent reading fluency
 When we give students support with reading, they are
more likely to engage in the task
 Negotiating meeting supported by the group –
providing further opportunities for deeper learning
Norm Setting
 To work together as a community we need to create
some agreements about how we will interact with each
other.
 What do you need in order to think best?
Let’s Take a Break
 15 Minutes
Personal Reading History
 Refer to Pg. 5 in your handouts
Good Reader’s Strategies
 Genome’s Mysteries
 Read silently PP 6-9 in your Notebook
 Make sense of the text – P 10
 Complete the worksheet: Capturing the Reading Process
 Let’s start a Good Reader’s Strategy List – P 11
Digging Into the Dimensions
 PP 4 in your Binder and 24-25 in Your Books




Social Dimension
Personal Dimension
Cognitive Dimension
Knowledge Building Dimension
 By yourself first– then reflect as a table
 As a group – one Dimension – Connect what we have
done so far today and write them on post-it notes
 Place that on the poster
Lunch
 45 minutes
What Does and RA
Classroom Look Like?
 Read in your notebook, PP 12-13
 What do you do in your content area that fits?
 Read the background on Rita Jenson’s classroom PP
14-17
 Use the Evidence/Interpretation Guide to record
observations as we watch Rita Jenson’s class. PP 1819
Strategic Literacy Teacher
Pre-Survey
 On your own – take 15 minutes to complete the survey
PP 20-24
 Working in Job Alike Groups Discuss
 Surprises
 Observations
 Ideas for use of reading in your content
Reflections/Connections
 Working in Job-Alike Groups





Generate a list of “implementation ideas” for your content.
Ways to be social..
Ways to make learning personal…
Ways to develop mental processes…
Ways to engage your content through texts
Homework
 Finish Reading Chpt. 2
 PP 22-42 in your Text Book
 Answer the Questions Provided and be prepared to
discuss P 25 in your Notebook
Ticket Out the Door
 Two post-it notes:
 One Ah’Ha
 One I still wonder…
 Place on the chart paper
 See you tomorrow