Ruth Schoenbach - Reading for Understanding: How Reading Apprenticeship Improves Disciplinary Learning in Secondary and College Classrooms

Contents

More Praise for Reading for Understanding, Second Edition

Reading for Understanding is a monumental achievement. It was a monumental achievement when it came out as a first edition in 1999, bringing years of rigorous reading research together in a framework for teaching that made sense in actual secondary school classrooms. Now, just thirteen years later, Schoenbach and Greenleaf have several randomized clinical trials and multiple on-going studies at their fingertips to demonstrate the effects of this approach for developing the reading and thinking of young people in our nations middle and high school classrooms, as well as in community college classrooms. Their careful work on developing disciplinary literacy among all students represents a passion for and commitment to supporting studentsand their teachersin reading for understanding, which translates to reading for enjoyment, self-awareness, learning, and for purposeful and informed action in our society.

Elizabeth Moje, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Associate Dean for Research, School of Education, University of Michigan

Reading Apprenticeship has proven to be an inspiration to Renton Technical College faculty and students alike. They have learned together to view themselves as readers in transformative ways, as they embrace powerful techniques to increase reading comprehension. The ideas and strategies in Reading for Understanding anchor this new and broad-based energy around reading and an enthusiasm among our faculty to model effective reading strategies for our students.

Steve Hanson, President, Renton Technical College, Renton, Washington

In my work coaching teachers, I want the learning to continue when the coaching conversation ends. Reading for Understanding has the finest blend I have seen of research, strategies, and classroom vignettes to deepen teacher learning and help them connect the dots between theory and practice.

Curtis Refior, Content Area Literacy Coach, Fowlerville Community Schools, Fowlerville, Michigan

Schoenbach, Greenleaf, and Murphy have developed a second edition of Reading Apprenticeship that gives voice to the concrete and inspiring experiences of teachers and students LEARNING TOGETHER in a wide range of contexts. Their design for inquiry-based learning in academic literacy extends from college classrooms in the suburbs of Los Angeles to rural high schools in Utah. Highlighting the critical nature of equitable opportunity for increasingly diverse students, the authors use their powerful framework to engage students in the rigor of disciplinary learning demanded by the Common Core State Standards. It is this challenge that makes Reading Apprenticeship indispensable for all those committed to creating a career-and-college-ready future for all students.

Dr. Christelle Estrada, Ph.D., Secondary English Language Arts Specialist, Utah State Office of Education

At last count, more than 150 instructors, enough to reach a critical mass in our students educational experience, have been trained in Reading Apprenticeship. This new edition of Reading for Understanding will be an important support as we continue to help our students use a problem-solving approach to decipher dense textbook information, build reading stamina, and improve their classroom participation.

Mary S. Spangler, Ed.D., Chancellor, Houston Community College, Houston, Texas

In concrete, specific ways, Reading for Understanding builds on the rationale behind Reading Apprenticeship to assist teachers in their efforts to scaffold student learning so all students may become more engaged, strategic, and independent readers.

Mary M. Katona, Assistant Superintendent, Twin Valley School District, Elverson, Pennsylvania

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-0-470-60831-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-22071-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-23452-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-25900-9 (ebk)

SECOND EDITION

Foreword

In 1999, I had the privilege of writing a foreword for the first edition of Reading for Understanding . I was delighted, indeed honored, to do so because the four authors (Ruth Schoenbach, Cynthia Greenleaf, Christine Cziko, and Lori Hurwitz) had provided the field with a resource that enabled subject matter teachers to do what so many find so difficulthelp middle and high school readers cope with and learn from disciplinary texts. Too often, these texts and these subject matter classes had taught students that they were incompetent, not up to the challenge of learning from tough texts. But the four of them, in describing the experiences they lived through in creating and refining their academic literacy course, told a different storyone in which these same sorts of students learned that they were competent, that they possessed the intellectual capital (knowledge), collaborative resources (their peers and teachers), toolkits (strategies), and personal attributes (stamina and self-efficacy) to stand up to the very texts that defeat so many adolescent learners.