From the Back Cover
LEADING for LITERACY
"Leading for Literacy: A Reading Apprenticeship Approach offers educators the kind of solid advice, grounded in clear examples from many different kinds of campuses and districts, that will be helpful for any leaders concerned in supporting teachers to help students meet the more rigorous college and career-ready standards. . . . The kind of system-wide work described here has made an important difference in my district, and will--I believe--be a good guide for others as well."
--Michael Matsuda, Superintendent, Anaheim Union High School District
"As a district superintendent in Dearborn, Michigan, I saw several of our secondary schools transformed through years-long work with the Reading Apprenticeship approach across multiple subject area classes. Not only did we see changes in student comprehension at these schools, but also in teachers' ways of teaching and working collaboratively with each other. . . . Leading for Literacy: A Reading Apprenticeship Approach offers education leaders many varied pathways and insights about what to do and what pitfalls to avoid."
--Brian Whiston, Michigan State Superintendent
"As a former teacher, instructional coach, and now curriculum director who has seen the benefits of Reading Apprenticeship for my own students and for teachers in schools and districts, I am eager to use Leading for Literacy as a resource for working with professional learning communities, developing teacher leadership, and supporting administrators' understanding of what it really takes to help all our students achieve the kind of deeper literacy learning needed for the challenging texts and tasks we expect them to handle."
--Melissa Devlin, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Literacy, Antietam School District
Leading for Literacy provides tools and examples for improving student reading across secondary schools and colleges. As a companion to the landmark Reading for Understanding, which offers guidance for classroom level implementation, this book guides teacher leaders, coaches and administrators through the nuts and bolts of implementing the Reading Apprenticeship Framework at a broader scale within their own local contexts.
Key insights from Reading Apprenticeship practitioners across the country address how to:
- Generate authentic buy-in from teachers and administrators
- Create communities of practice that sustain an institutional focus on a student-centered, strengths-based culture of literacy
- Use formative assessment to promote teacher and student growth
- Turn reform overload into reform coherence
Nationwide classroom testing has shown Reading Apprenticeship to promote not only literacy and content knowledge, but also motivation and positive academic identity--leading to better student outcomes that reach beyond the classroom walls. Leading for Literacy lays out a path to improved student engagement and achievement, with practical guidance and real-world insight.
Ruth Schoenbach and Cynthia Greenleaf, Ph.D., are co-directors of WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI), a teacher professional development and research organization based in Oakland, California. They are developers of the Reading Apprenticeship Framework.
Lynn Murphy is the Director of Materials Development for WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative.
