WestEd1

Peer Review, Leadership in Reading and Metacognition: Reading Apprenticeship in Action

Northern Essex Community College Professional DayReading Across the Curriculum

March 27, 2009

Assistant Professor Patricia Schade

Northern Essex Community College

Developmental Studies/Reading

http://www.wested.org/StrategicLiteracy

WestEd2

WestEd’s Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI)

A professional development and research organization focusing on improving academic literacy in diverse populations of adolescents and post-secondary students using Reading Apprenticeship, a research-based instructional framework.

WestEd3

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 learners’

unique and often underestimated strengths

WestEd4

Dimensions of Reading Apprenticeship

WestEd

WestEd5

What does a Reading ApprenticeshipClassroom Look Like?

A focus on comprehension and metacognitive conversation

A climate of collaboration

An emphasis on student independence

WestEd6

Where is Reading Apprenticeship Implemented?

In developmental education courses that help students develop the self-awareness, habits, and tools they need to become more engaged and effective readers

In transfer level academic courses and career and technical education, helping students develop habits of mind and strategies for understanding content area texts and discourse

WestEd7

Reading Apprenticeship in Community Colleges

RA is being implemented in. . .20 California Community

Collegesand

9 community colleges in Arkansas, Massachusetts,

Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

WestEd8

Student Outcomes

More reading

Increased engagement and confidence as readers

Development of a range of strategies to support comprehension

Higher levels of interaction between and among teachers and students

Increased retention

WestEd

What students have said about this approach to reading “At first when I use to read, reading was hard for me. I don’t mean hard like I couldn’t

read, but like I couldn’t understand what the author was putting out. Reading was very difficult because when I’m tested on a question about it, I couldn’t answer. Because I never read and visualized things until now. When I read, I’ll do one sentence at a time and try to summarize it, or sometimes I would picture myself in the description of that sentence. I visualize a lot now. I realize that I am using a method metacognition and since then I’ve been an improved reader whenever I visualize as I read.” –Rashad

“I have learned that metacognition is when you think about what you read. Metacognition has changed the things that go on in my head because now I think about what I read more clearly. I predict, picture, question, make connections, identify and problems and check back if I don’t understand something the first time I read it. When I used to read before, I just read to get it over with and be done, but now I really get into books and try to predict and make connections to help me summarize what I read.” –Tiffany

“I have learned to slow down, think and understand. Before I was never able to do this because I just wanted to read and just get it over with. In this class I learned something new called ‘metacognition’—a big word with a small meaning—slow down and think.”

--Fabian9

WestEd

More student reflections on Reading Apprenticeship “It just helps to understand what you’re reading easier. I’ve learned about

how I read which is I visualize a lot more than anything. What I’ve changed in my reading habits is to actually think about what I’m reading and to summarize the paragraphs so I understand better.” –Tasha

 “When metacognition was first introduced to me, I really didn’t know what to think about it. I felt a little uncomfortable talking about what I am seeing and thinking about in my mind. Especially with classmates. But it wasn’t that bad. In fact I feel metacognition has helped me with my reading. Before when I read, I would not really visualize much because I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading. But now I find myself taking my time reading, visualizing everything I can.” –Jeremy

 “Before learning about metacognition I used to read text and by the next page I would have forgotten what I read. Now I can read something like a whole chapter and remember what I read vividly because of this technique. I think that it enhanced my reading abilities greatly because I put myself in the actual text and imagine myself being there or I will think of how I would react if something ever happened to me like that.” –Kristina

10

WestEd11

Increased Engagement and Understanding of Text

“The level of engagement with the class reading and the depth and quality of the critical thinking achieved by many of the students far surpasses anything that I saw before starting to implement RA. . . There has been a remarkable shift in classroom culture, from one in which the general idea was to just get through the course. . . to one in which critical inquiry is the general idea. . .”

 

-Anne Agard, ESL, Laney College

Year 1 Research Report on Reading Apprenticeship

WestEd12

Impact of Metacognitive Conversation on Students’ Comprehension

“ (By the end of the semester) I noticed an increase in ‘higher order’ comments in (student samples) of Talking to the Text; more students. . . were writing summary comments, labeling passages by their function, writing evaluative comments. . . making inferences, drawing conclusions, making connections, and asking more interesting questions.”

 -Cindy Hicks, English, Chabot College

Year 1 Research Report on Reading Apprenticeship

WestEd13

Teacher Outcomes

New ways of looking at student thinking and reading difficulties

Wider repertoire of resources and tools for addressing student reading difficulty

Increased sense of responsibility for addressing reading and literacy in subject area classes

Growth in teacher leadership

WestEd14

Campus-wide Outcomes

Increased student-focused interactions among faculty

Campus-wide emphasis on literacy improvement Agreements about a common language and

strategic approaches to reading Professional learning communities: inquiry and use

of protocols for looking at classroom practices, student work

Interactions with other RA practitioners becomes a source of information sharing, learning and support

Growth of campus leaders in literacy