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Leadership for Literacy: Raising Expectations and Opportunities for Excellence
District- & School-Based Professional Development Approaches for Content Area Literacy Improvement
With Reading Apprenticeship®, There Are No Excuses
The Reading Apprenticeship Framework
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WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship Featured
As Senior Program Associate with WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI), Diane Waff facilitates site-based professional development, national network outreach and documentation, and the development of targeted professional development tools.
Through Reading Apprenticeship®, a research-based professional development model and instructional framework, SLI engages secondary and community college educators in specifically designed, collaborative activities from which they gain the knowledge and instructional strategies they need to support the literacy development of their diverse students. Waff facilitates intensive hands-on training to build content area teachers' knowledge about reading development and accelerate students' learning through changes in classroom instruction. SLI, which has gained a national reputation for its work in adolescent literacy development, recently received funding from the Lumina Foundation to support its work with community college instructors.
Since 2005, Waff has facilitated national Leadership Institutes in Reading Apprenticeship, midyear winter conferences, regional professional development workshops, and online webinars reaching hundreds of educators worldwide. Waff's work has supported and expanded networks of faculty from California to New Jersey who are integrating Reading Apprenticeship in their teaching. In one session at the National Staff Development Conference (2006), Waff, joined by colleagues from the Trenton (NJ) Public Schools, described how Reading Apprenticeship improved secondary students' outcomes on standardized assessments in mathematics and literacy, and served as a vehicle for increasing parent involvement through Family Literacy Nights.
Waff also worked with teacher leaders from Wilson High School in the District of Columbia to document and disseminate the story of how Reading Apprenticeship inspired change efforts that impacted school and classroom practices, organizational structures, and students' learning experiences. This story was published in the May 2007 issue of English Journal.
Prior to joining WestEd, Waff served as Director of Secondary Innovative Programs for Trenton Public Schools. She introduced Reading Apprenticeship to secondary teachers at Trenton High and later facilitated Reading Apprenticeship professional development for middle and high school teachers. As a result, over 100 Trenton educators participated in such professional development, impacting approximately 5,000 students in grades 6-12. Across the district, teachers began to gain new perspectives on subject-area teaching and the kinds of literacy experiences offered to students.
For over two decades, Waff has worked with teacher research communities as a convener and facilitator for the National Writing Project, the Bread Loaf Teacher Network, and Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity. She serves on the board of the Practitioner Initiated Inquiry Series for Teachers College Press and is the current Chair of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Secondary Section Steering Committee. At the 2007 NCTE national convention in New York, the Secondary Section, under Waff's leadership, partnered with the Two Year College Association to sponsor a session focused on bridging the gap between secondary school and community college. Entitled, "Crossing Boundaries: Reconfiguring the Literacy Landscapes for Secondary/Community College Students," this session highlighted Reading Apprenticeship as an effective way to improve teacher practice and build students’ reading proficiency.
Waff coedited Reconceptualizing the Literacies in Adolescents' Lives, 2nd edition (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006) and coauthored Clients, Consumers, or Collaborators? Parents and Their Roles in School Reform During "Children Achieving," 1995-2000 (Consortium for Policy Research in Education, August 2001). She received a two-year Carnegie Foundation Fellowship, awarded to school and university-based scholars, to conduct classroom-based research, and a Fred Hechinger Award from the National Writing Project in 2002 for connecting research and practice in a body of work that includes articles and book chapters on language and literacy.
She received a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, an MEd from Antioch University, an MS in educational administration from Saint Joseph's University, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She also received the Ralph C. Preston Dissertation Award for Scholarship and Teaching Contributing to Social Justice and Educational Equity in 2007 from the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.
Through Reading Apprenticeship®, a research-based professional development model and instructional framework, SLI engages secondary and community college educators in specifically designed, collaborative activities from which they gain the knowledge and instructional strategies they need to support the literacy development of their diverse students. Waff facilitates intensive hands-on training to build content area teachers' knowledge about reading development and accelerate students' learning through changes in classroom instruction. SLI, which has gained a national reputation for its work in adolescent literacy development, recently received funding from the Lumina Foundation to support its work with community college instructors.
Since 2005, Waff has facilitated national Leadership Institutes in Reading Apprenticeship, midyear winter conferences, regional professional development workshops, and online webinars reaching hundreds of educators worldwide. Waff's work has supported and expanded networks of faculty from California to New Jersey who are integrating Reading Apprenticeship in their teaching. In one session at the National Staff Development Conference (2006), Waff, joined by colleagues from the Trenton (NJ) Public Schools, described how Reading Apprenticeship improved secondary students' outcomes on standardized assessments in mathematics and literacy, and served as a vehicle for increasing parent involvement through Family Literacy Nights.
Waff also worked with teacher leaders from Wilson High School in the District of Columbia to document and disseminate the story of how Reading Apprenticeship inspired change efforts that impacted school and classroom practices, organizational structures, and students' learning experiences. This story was published in the May 2007 issue of English Journal.
Prior to joining WestEd, Waff served as Director of Secondary Innovative Programs for Trenton Public Schools. She introduced Reading Apprenticeship to secondary teachers at Trenton High and later facilitated Reading Apprenticeship professional development for middle and high school teachers. As a result, over 100 Trenton educators participated in such professional development, impacting approximately 5,000 students in grades 6-12. Across the district, teachers began to gain new perspectives on subject-area teaching and the kinds of literacy experiences offered to students.
For over two decades, Waff has worked with teacher research communities as a convener and facilitator for the National Writing Project, the Bread Loaf Teacher Network, and Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity. She serves on the board of the Practitioner Initiated Inquiry Series for Teachers College Press and is the current Chair of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Secondary Section Steering Committee. At the 2007 NCTE national convention in New York, the Secondary Section, under Waff's leadership, partnered with the Two Year College Association to sponsor a session focused on bridging the gap between secondary school and community college. Entitled, "Crossing Boundaries: Reconfiguring the Literacy Landscapes for Secondary/Community College Students," this session highlighted Reading Apprenticeship as an effective way to improve teacher practice and build students’ reading proficiency.
Waff coedited Reconceptualizing the Literacies in Adolescents' Lives, 2nd edition (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006) and coauthored Clients, Consumers, or Collaborators? Parents and Their Roles in School Reform During "Children Achieving," 1995-2000 (Consortium for Policy Research in Education, August 2001). She received a two-year Carnegie Foundation Fellowship, awarded to school and university-based scholars, to conduct classroom-based research, and a Fred Hechinger Award from the National Writing Project in 2002 for connecting research and practice in a body of work that includes articles and book chapters on language and literacy.
She received a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, an MEd from Antioch University, an MS in educational administration from Saint Joseph's University, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She also received the Ralph C. Preston Dissertation Award for Scholarship and Teaching Contributing to Social Justice and Educational Equity in 2007 from the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.