Reynolds & Smith Difficult Texts: An Inquiry into Classroom Implementation of Reading Apprenticeship

25/S 8:15 AM Hope

Type_Presentation: 90 Minute Concurrent session

PresentationTitle: Difficult Texts: An Inquiry into Classroom Implementation of Reading Apprenticeship

ProgramStrand_Primary: College Reading

ProgramStrand_Secondary: Learning and Study Strategies

Presentation_description:

The Reading Apprenticeship (RA) instructional framework draws on instructors’ disciplinary expertise to help college students become more engaged and effective readers of academic texts. The presenters share new college research from California and Mississippi on how RA across disciplines can foster improvement in student comprehension and the development of strategic readers.

Session_summary:

Key components of the Reading Apprenticeship (RA) instructional framework include making instructor and student thinking processes visible and metacognitive conversation, which brings reading processes into classroom discourse. The instructor, as expert reader within a particular discipline, apprentices the student reader as he/she attempts to learn from subject matter texts (Schoenbach, Braunger, Greenleaf, & Litman, 2003; Schoenbach, Greenleaf, Cziko, & Hurwitz, 1999).

Lause (2004) calls metacognitive and self-monitoring strategies the “street smarts of reading.” Comprehension occurs within a specific context, and student readers bring cognitive capacities, motivation, and various types of knowledge to the text. The student reader extracts material from the text, and constructs knowledge based on its relevance to the reader’s purposes with guidance from an effective instructor (Snow, 2002). According to Lause (2004), readers who are not aware of their own comprehension processes are simply “going through the motions.”

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

1. use components of the Reading Apprenticeship instructional framework in their own subject area classes.

2. justify the need for continued reading support for college students

3. become more aware of their own metacognitive reading processes

Participants in this session will engage in a reading process analysis to experience first hand the variety of individual reading processes and the value of providing access to each other’s ways of reading through metacognitive conversation.

Reynolds will then share current research and early findings from a three year study at West Hills College, where 10% of the student population is recruited from other countries. Reynolds’ research explores how International students’ engagement in metacognitive strategies improves their English language development and academic learning in liberal arts classes. He will share philosophies, practices and strategies that enable students to learn how to “use” academic texts in order to learn from the difficult and unique languages found within those texts. Reynolds will use overhead charts and descriptions developed from the research data along with his “Windows on Learning” website through The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Handouts will include early research findings, data from ETS & WestEd, samples of difficult texts, and an anthology of “Reading and Research.”

Smith will share the current status of a five year study at Jones County Jr. College (JCJC) where less than 1/3 of the first-time freshmen students met the ACT benchmark for college level reading tasks in 2006 (ACT, 2006). Beginning Fall, 2008 JCJC faculty will initiate a progressive, across discipline implementation of RA beginning with composition, biology and music appreciation classes. Via PowerPoint presentation Smith will share the college’s year by year RA implementation and assessment plans along with early findings, including preliminary data from a standardized reading comprehension test, ACT data, and a teacher and student attitude survey. Smith will share revised course documents where RA has been implemented, student work samples and performance on a curriculum embedded reading assessment. Smith will also share current research into how a focus on metacognitive conversation affects student comprehension of academic texts specifically in composition and reading enhancement classes at JCJC. Video tape excerpts of students using metacognitive strategies within the various disciplines studied will also be presented.

References:

ACT, Inc. (2006). Reading between the lines: What the ACT reveals about college readiness in

reading. Iowa City, IA. http://www.act.org/path/policy/pdf/reading_report.pdf

Lause, J. (2004). Using reading workshop to inspire lifelong readers. English Journal 93(5), 24-30.

Schoenbach, R., Braunger, J., Greenleaf, C., & Litman, C. (2003). Apprenticing adolescents to reading in subject-area classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan 133-138.

Schoenbach, R., Greenleaf, C., Cziko, C., & Hurwitz, L. (1999). Reading for understanding: A guideto improving reading in middle and high school classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Snow, C. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an R&D program in reading comprehension.Santa Monica, CA: RAND. http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1465/MR1465.pdf

PresenterBio:

David Reynolds is Professor of Philosophy/English at West Hills College Coalinga, located in the Central Valley of California. He has been a teacher of English and Reading, Religion, Humanities and Philosophy for more than forty years. He currently teaches classes in Education, English, Humanities and/or Philosophy. He is in charge of a joint-partnership at his college with the CSU colleges in California for training future teachers. He is the director of a CTE Teacher Preparation Pipeline Grant, funded by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. He is conducting research concerning college International students for WestEd and the Lumina Foundation. He is married to Judy, a Kindgergarten teacher, has four children and six grandchildren.

Presenter2_Bio:

Patti Smith has been a literacy educator for 18 years. She has taught in a variety of classrooms including Kindergarten, Special Education, Middle School, college Teacher Education programs, and at the community college level. Smith currently teaches Composition I & II as well as Reading Enhancement I & II at Jones County Jr. College in Ellisville Mississippi. She serves as Co-Chair and Lead Researcher for her college’s 10-year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), a required component of a reaffirmation of reaccreditation process through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). She is a frequent presenter and speaker at community, state and national conferences and meetings. She is conducting research on the effects of metacognitive conversation on student comprehension for WestEd and the Lumina Foundation.