Resources

This commentary, written by Cynthia Greenleaf, codeveloper of WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship instructional framework, and Kathleen Hinchman, confronts the issue of literacy instruction for older youth in the United States who struggle with reading. In many U.S. schools, many young people face an impoverished curriculum, receiving literacy instruction that is ill suited to their needs, or worse, receiving no literacy instruction at all.

The article invites readers to consider a way of teaching that helps students read a wide variety of texts more effectively, and to re-imagine instruction that acknowledges these struggling students and helps them to acknowledge themselves as thriving, literate, intelligent beings with important contributions to make to the world.

The authors, using an example of one former struggling student who is now thriving, argue that dramatic change in policy, research, and classroom practice is essential to help all secondary school students achieve success in literacy.

WestEd offers the Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy Course to support the implementation of the goals presented in this commentary.