Nearly 200 educators from Washington and California, representing over 60 colleges, the CSU Chancellor’s Office, and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office attended last week’s 1st Annual Statewide Reading Apprenticeship Conference co-sponsored by 3CSN, WestEd, and College of San Mateo.
On Friday, participants attended with full-day workshops focused on integrating Reading Apprenticeship in various contexts, including STEM disciplines, First Year Experience, and Learning Assistance. On Saturday, conference attendees selected from over 35 breakout sessions to further explore the Reading Apprenticeship framework. These sessions provided attendees an opportunity to experience how Reading Apprenticeship is used in a range of educational contexts, including ESL, Tutoring, First Year Experience, Learning Communities, Accelerated English Classes, STEM disciplines and so much more. At lunch on Saturday, participants shared insights and ideas about their learning during a brief writing activity. One participant wrote,
“The Reading Apprenticeship framework has helped us confront many barriers to student success in a manner that was disarming and productive.”
Another wrote,
“I feel nourished in my teaching when I meet with colleagues.”
By the end of the conference, participants had outlined several next steps they plan to take to integrate Reading Apprenticeship into their practice. The comments reflect the wide and deep reach of the framework’s applicability.
“Work with committee on embedded peer mentors in order to determine best strategies for training.”
“Use the writing/peer review process in my classes. Revise my assignments in future to more fully incorporate metacognitive reading logs, etc.”
“Use Reading Apprenticeship to frame faculty professional development.”
The two-day conference, the first of its kind, started what we hope will become an annual tradition for educators to continue their exploration of and inquiry into the Reading Apprenticeship framework and how it supports metacognitive conversation in multiple educational contexts.
