Featured Speakers:
- Jenell Krishnan, Director of Writing Apprenticeship, WestEd
- Heather Howlett, Director of Reading Apprenticeship, WestEd
Host:
- Danny Torres, Associate Director of Events and Digital Media, WestEd
Danny Torres:
Well, hello everyone, and welcome to our Leading Together series. In these 30-minute learning webinars, WestEd experts are sharing research and evidence-based practices that help bridge opportunity gaps, support positive outcomes for children and adults, and help build thriving communities. Today’s topic, Apprenticing Students to Read and Write in the Disciplines. Our featured speakers today are Jenell Krishnan, director of Writing Apprenticeship at WestEd, and Heather Howlett, director of Reading Apprenticeship at WestEd. Thank you all very much for joining us. My name is Danny Torres. I’m associate director of events and digital media for WestEd. I’ll be your host.
Now, I’d like to take a moment to introduce WestEd. As a nonpartisan research, development, and service agency, WestEd works to promote excellence, improve learning, and increase opportunity for children, youth, and adults. Our staff partner with schools, districts, states, and others, providing a broad range of tailored services, including research and evaluation, professional learning, technical assistance, and policy guidance. We work to generate knowledge and apply evidence and expertise to improve policies, systems, and practices. Now, I’d like to pass the mic over to Jenell. Jenell, take it away.
Jenell Krishnan:
Thank you, Danny. Let’s ground today’s learning by first stepping into the shoes of the learners that we serve. Let’s reflect on the question here and then respond using a poll. So this question is, “How prepared do students feel to read and write the complex texts in your discipline or school?” And your options are very prepared, somewhat prepared, not very prepared, or not at all prepared. Let’s just take a few moments to reflect and use our poll function to think about what our students are feeling these days. We do have someone in the chat who shared not very prepared, and I think that that’s pretty likely that a lot of students are feeling that way.
Danny, if anyone shared their thoughts in the poll, let’s take a look right now. We’ve got not very prepared as 67% of our responses. Somewhat prepared is 17%, and then not prepared at all as 17% as well. So unfortunately, no one today shared that students are feeling very prepared to read and write the complex texts in the discipline or in the school. So let’s keep those young people in mind as we continue to learn today. So before we describe the approach that we use, let’s name the problem that we’re all wrestling with.
By the time that students reach middle and high school, those texts in front of them, those lab procedures, those primary sources, those word problems, literary criticism get dramatically harder and more specialized. But the explicit instruction in how to read those texts, how to write like those texts, mostly ends after elementary school. So content area teachers, they’re experts in their disciplines, but most were never shown how to make their expert thinking visible to students. So students are often left to figure it out on their own, and sometimes they quietly disengage.
So we see the consequences in the data. Like in this biology classroom that you’re going to hear about in a few moments where students were growing in English, but flatlining in science. The problem isn’t the students and it isn’t our teachers. It’s that no one has apprenticed students into the literacy practices in the disciplines. This is a systems level approach. And that’s exactly the gap that we are going to be talking about today. So when we say apprenticeship, we mean apprenticing students into both the reading and writing practices of a discipline. Experts don’t just read like historians or scientists. They write, argue, explain, and communicate like them. So throughout the day, you’ll see how reading and writing are really two sides of the same meaning-making process. And I’d like to invite Heather now to kick us off.
Heather Howlett:
Thanks for joining us, everyone. So when students struggle with complex texts or with writing them, it’s usually not just one thing. It’s not just the vocab or the background knowledge or the skills. It’s a combination of factors happening at once. So our approach is designed to support all of those aspects of learning at the same time. And we organize that work into four areas that are always interacting in the classroom, and that’s what you’re seeing in this infographic. First, we help teachers build a classroom where students feel safe taking risks because reading and writing are vulnerable acts. Second, we build on what students already bring. Their experiences, their language, the ways that they’re already making meaning.
Third, we support students in developing the skills and strategies they need to make sense of complex texts and communicate ideas clearly. And fourth, we’re always building knowledge of the content and the discipline because reading and writing only makes sense when it’s about something. So in Reading and Writing Apprenticeship, what ties all of this together is making thinking visible through metacognitive conversation, which is at the center of our instructional framework, and that’s depicted here in this infographic. We’re constantly helping students notice and talk about what they’re doing as readers and writers. What’s working, what’s confusing, what decisions they’re making in the moment.
And that might sound like a student saying, “Well, I needed to reread because I lost track.” Happens to all of us, right? Or, “I chose this example because it would convince my audience.” And it’s that kind of talk is what really helps students become more independent over time. And this same framework applies whether students are reading or writing because both are ways of making meaning in a discipline. We’re apprenticing students into how experts think, make meaning, and communicate in a discipline, giving them opportunities to practice through extensive reading and writing, which is what you see around the outside of the circle. And extensive reading and writing are central to an inquiry-based classroom.
And texts become one of the things that we study in Reading and Writing Apprenticeship. And for many readers and writers, the word “text” really implies words that appear in print or on a digital page, like in a book or article. But we take a more expansive view of what counts as text, especially as it relates to communicating disciplinary concepts and context. And so this table presents examples of text, both print and digital, in some of the different disciplines. What makes text distinct to particular disciplines is how they’re used to communicate important ideas of that field and to support inquiries relevant to that field. So as you can see in this table, lots of different things count as text.
When we use text as resources for inquiry, tools and scaffolds for supporting reading and writing are critical. We cannot expect our students to just know what to do when we put a complex text in front of them. And the most powerful support for literacy is the teacher. There are so many teacher decisions to be made based on knowing their students and their discipline. The teacher decides what text, how to frame the text, and how to support the reading and writing in meaningful ways. On the slide, you’re seeing some examples of tools we use in Reading Apprenticeship and Writing Apprenticeship as scaffolds to support the reading or writing task.
In our apprenticeship model, the teacher is the expert reader and writer, and therefore the mentor, and the students are the apprentices. So that means the teacher demonstrates their own thinking process as they read and write. The teacher facilitates metacognitive and sense-making discussions to elicit students’ reading and writing processes with complex texts as well. And using text as a resource for inquiry like this takes expertise. And as Jenell mentioned earlier, educators often don’t feel equipped to approach instruction in this manner.
So independent studies have shown that when educators take part in Reading and Writing Apprenticeship professional learning, they improve teaching reading in their subject area. That leads to real improvements in how students engage with text and with each other and how much they read. So this evidence-based approach has remained effective for 30 years with ongoing research and development in many different school contexts and grade levels and content areas. Five federally funded studies have confirmed major improvements in student engagement, literacy skills, and academic performance. And Reading Apprenticeship has been recognized by these highly regarded organizations that you’re seeing on the slide: Evidence for ESSA, CASEL, IES What Works Clearinghouse, and AERA. And in the chat, Danny’s sharing a link to our website for more of our evidence.
Reading Apprenticeship really changes how teachers teach and students learn. And students of educators using our approach consistently outperform their peers on both literacy and subject area assessments. So as Jenell alluded to earlier, you’re seeing this quote from a 10th-grade biology teacher who said, “For the past several years, students have not met expected growth in biology. And the response from our superiors has been, ‘Well, these same students are meeting growth on the English assessment. So why are they not doing that in biology?’ After I implemented Reading Apprenticeship, the test results came back and we exceeded expected growth.”
Jenell Krishnan:
Writing Apprenticeship is WestEd’s latest offering and is based on the Reading Apprenticeship model. Teachers who use this approach, they move beyond assigning writing to modeling discipline-specific writing in ways that meet the needs of all learners. So the types of writing that students get to do in Writing Apprenticeship classrooms, it’s purposeful and it’s directed toward authentic audiences. And this increases student motivation and engagement. And here we have a quote from a seventh-grade social studies teacher that says, “I now know that showing my students the process, not just the polished exemplar, is equally important. I will be modeling think alouds during the drafting process. I also feel better equipped to help students avoid formulaic historical writing, which is what we want for all students.”
Now we’ll demonstrate a core routine of the apprenticeship approach. We’re going to start with a reading think aloud, but the same routine extends directly to writing. So you’ll see the same metacognitive moves supported in both. The think aloud is an important early routine to support students learning how to focus on their thinking process when they read and how to make that thinking visible to themselves and others. This routine ensures that student engagement is really their own job. So the reader, the thinker has that job as well as the listener. We can provide a scaffold to prompt student thinking and to give them language to describe what they’re doing as well.
So when introducing think aloud, the teacher’s role is to model with a brief segment of text and then invite students into comment on that think aloud. Again, engaging in that reciprocal process. Then the teacher turns it over to students to practice in pairs or in small groups. After a few minutes of paired conversation, the teacher brings it back whole class. And the discussion of what teacher, excuse me, what students are discovering, it can be captured… Excuse me, you can capture the strategies that students are using using a reading or writing strategies list. If you shared in the chat at the beginning of the session that you feel like your students aren’t quite prepared, this observation might be for you, because think aloud is a great routine to support them. Now let’s observe Heather as she models a writing think aloud for us.
Heather Howlett:
Okay, so we’re going to step into my eighth-grade science classroom, okay? I’m going to do a quick think aloud to show how I approach an image like this when I want to understand it. So I’ve displayed the image up on the board. We can see it’s a U.S. map, it’s color-coded. So the first thing I do when I see an image is I first want to figure out, what is this thing I’m looking at? And this looks like an infographic probably because I’m seeing some numbers and I’m seeing a key and some other things. So it’s not just a map of the U.S. There’s more to it than that. So I think I’m going to need to kind of pull some sort of a synthesis of, okay, this is what this is showing me, and then what do I think it means?
So I’m going to look for things I know on an infographic. I know that there should be a title and some labels and a caption. So I know that text structure. And so my eyes are going to go right to the top. I see nice and bold. There’s a title, “Domestic Water Use in Gallons Per Day Per Person and Percent Population Growth from 2000 to 2020.” Okay, but before reading closely, I still want to scan the whole image. And again, I already picked up there’s some different colors going on. I see the key to those colors on the left. And so there are some comparisons happening here.
And I wonder if the percentages that are inside the states are related to the color coding of the states at all. And that really sets my purpose. So now as a reader, my purpose is to scan the map for contrast between those colors and percentages. As I kind of scan around, one kind of pops out at me. And I’m noticing Louisiana. It is a little darker in color, but a really small percentage. And that doesn’t quite follow some of the patterns I’m noticing with the other states. And Louisiana has a 4% population growth from 2000 to 2020. Yet when I look at the key to its color, the domestic water use is 101 to 125 daily gallons per person. Wow, okay.
I’m gonna pause my think aloud and just say, all those steps happen in just a few seconds in my head. So saying them aloud, when I do a think aloud, helps me slow down and notice what matters with this text. Where my eyes go first? How do I know the text structure? All of those things really sets me up to analyze it more closely and make sense of it. But these are key strategies to model and name for my students so that they get insights into, “Oh, that’s how an experienced or expert reader tackles something like this,” right? And they get insights into my process, and then they can practice those same strategies and then also share maybe some things that they did, some strategies they brought to it.
So back in my classroom, after we made sense of what this infographic is telling us, we might investigate the reasons behind some of these trends that we’re noticing. And because the scientific community uses a wide variety of genres and text types to communicate what they know with the public, the class might use that information to develop a public service announcement intended to educate and inspire Louisiana residents to conserve domestic water. So now I’m going to hand it over to Jenell to take us into that, right?
Jenell Krishnan:
Yes, so let’s use that same routine to support discipline-specific writing, to support students in crafting that public service announcement. Science teachers might take their thinking aloud step one further to draft a bit of that public service announcement with their students to help them, again, name the types of moves that scientists make when they’re drafting a public service announcement. So I’m going to share my screen in just a moment and take you through a writing think aloud for a PSA that focuses on Louisiana and the challenges with water.
So here at the top here, I’ve got my rhetorical situation. I’m going to be serving as a conservationist as the writer. My listeners are people that use the radio in Louisiana. The message is really about some challenges to the underground aquifers and how we need to really do something about our water usage in Louisiana if we want to prevent strain on them. And the purpose is really about, not only educating the public, but also a bit of persuasion. And the context around this, as we saw on the map, but also some more research that I did, was that Louisiana has 11 major underground aquifers, and they need time to replenish.
So, okay, so I’ve already reviewed these statistics on water usage in the state, and I really want to start off with something doable, something that the public will consider in order to make some small changes of the household for great change on scale. But because folks are listening to this on the radio and they have the freedom to change the station at any moment, I really need to hook them. I need to hook them right away. So how about 104 gallons of water per day? I hope that this is interesting enough to keep the listener engaged and to be like, “What are they referring to here?”
So now I need to actually give context. What am I talking about with this stat here? Now I have to explain. That’s how much water the average Louisiana resident uses at home. That is a lot of drinking, a lot of bathroom water as well. Hmm, I’m wondering if they need more context like the largest use of water in the household is flushing the toilet and using the bathroom. You know what, I think it’s a nice idea, but I think I need to stay more to the point here. So maybe my listeners don’t need that additional fact. I think I’m just gonna stick right to the point what I need to do, which is talk about those aquifers.
And Louisiana’s 11 underground aquifers need time to refill. Maybe the word is actually but, maybe that’s a but instead of and. Do I need to define aquifer for the listener? I guess there’s the word underground and there’s the word refill. So maybe there’s enough context there for folks not to need that definition. Hmm, maybe something to think about. All right. And so I’ve already done some math on this. So if we all reduce our daily shower by just one minute, you know what? 60 seconds sounds shorter for some reason, by 60 seconds, we will save 2.5 billion gallons of water per year, maybe each year, each year. But how big is that? I think we need to give it some sort of contrast.
That’s enough to fill the Superdome three times. The Superdome is where the New Orleans Saints play. I think that that’s a landmark everyone will identify with. I wonder if I’m allowed to say Superdome on the radio. Something I’ll have to look up. Maybe I just need to say football field. I also wonder if I need to give them something else around how to accomplish this goal. Like do you set a timer? Something more for me to consider, I think. So now I really need to get to my call to action for this PSA.
Something like join the 60-second less Campaign. You know what, campaign is not a word that I think people resonate with. What about challenge? People are always doing challenges online. By reducing your water use, not weather use, water use, by one minute per day this year. No, I’m going to remove “this year” because I want this to be like the choice moving forward forever. And then we need something at the end that really hits home, like “Small efforts lead to big changes.” I think that this is a strong call to action. I think it’s clear. I think it invites the reader to do something specific.
Yeah, so, okay. So what I just presented was a writing think aloud. This is a routine that educators can use to make their thinking visible. And I use some language that’s specific to PSAs like hook, like call to action. And it’s certainly something that science educators can use when teaching this type of writing in their science space. And now I’m going to invite Danny to share the screen.
Heather Howlett:
All right, back to me. So we work with classroom teachers, college faculty, instructional coaches, and school leaders to apply our inquiry-based professional learning in meaningful ways to achieve results. When reading and writing are both approached as an apprenticeship, that’s when students aren’t just completing tasks. They are learning how to think, communicate, and participate in the discipline, which is what, clicking, we’re aiming to do.
So we offer several ways to improve instructional practice. Our services are organized as a progression, starting with some foundational practices, moving towards leadership and implementation support. The focus is really on helping educators integrate reading and writing into their discipline, particularly at middle and high school and college levels. And our offerings are flexible. We have in-person, online, can be paired with coaching and you know, supporting application and sustainability over time, because that’s when we really see shifts is that consistency over time with this approach.
Jenell Krishnan:
So we invite you all to visit our website to learn more about those approaches and those services. And we’re also inviting you just to subscribe to our mailing list. You’ve got a link in the chat there. You can receive regular updates on courses, our research, offerings as well as news from the field. And we’d love for you to connect with us on social media to stay connected and just get that up-to-date news that everyone is looking for. And I’d like to invite Danny now to share some closing thoughts.
Danny Torres:
Well, thank you, Jenell and Heather, for a great session today, and thank you to all our participants for joining us. We really appreciate you being here. Please feel free to reach out to Jenell and Heather via email. If you have any questions about the work we discussed today, you can reach Jenell at [email protected] and Heather at [email protected]. And to learn more about our Reading Apprenticeship and Writing Apprenticeship work, you can visit us online at disciplinaryliteracy.wested.org.
And you can check out recordings of our past Leading Together webinars. We’ve covered a range of topics, including literacy, generative AI, assessment, special education, and mathematics. Our next session is on July 23rd. We’ll be focusing on building reading comprehension through writing. To access our Leading Together webinar series recordings and to register for upcoming sessions, visit us online at wested.org/leading-together. And finally, if you’re interested in learning more about WestEd and staying connected, you can sign up for WestEd’s email newsletter to receive updates. Subscribe online at wested.org/subscribe, or you can scan the QR code displayed on the screen here. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and Bluesky. With that, thank you all very, very much. We’ll see you next time.