Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Rethinking Preparation for Content Area Teaching
"Finally, a book to help teacher educators who are called upon to teach the course 'Reading in the Content Areas.' In reading this book, I felt I had struck the proverbial gold mine: terrific course projects that will model for preservice and in-service teachers precisely the kinds of metacognitive and discipline-based strategies that will be engaging and effective for their future students."
Linda Miller Cleary, professor of English education, Morse Alumni Professor of Distinguished Teaching, University of Minnesota, Duluth
"Finally, a book on content area literacy with a bigger vision concerning what it means for adolescents to read in the disciplines and how teachers can support such reading."
Stephen B. Kucer, associate professor of language and literacy education, Division of Curriculum and Teaching, Fordham UniversityLincoln Center
"Braunger and colleagues offer a set of practices for engaging preservice teachers in learning how to use literacy in content teaching. Their approach is a vast improvement over former models of content-area literacy teacher education. The book is thick with resources, strategies, and reflective practices, and I look forward to using it as a resource for my own teacher education and professional development practices in large urban middle schools and high schools."
Elizabeth Birr Moje, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Educational Studies, University of Michigan
"Unique in content area texts, the instructional strategies depicted in this work are grounded in a coherent theoretical frame and presented in real-life classroom complexities. I see many ways of using and adapting the assignments and classroom practices in my own preservice and graduate courses."
Jayne DeLawter, professor of reading and language education, Sonoma State University
"It is refreshing to read a book geared for teaching preservice and practicing teachers that respects the knowledge they bring to the classroom and builds upon their abilities to take critical and inquiring stances on content area literacy."
Robert Anthony Fecho, associate professor of teacher education, University of Georgia
Review
"Finally, a book to help teacher educators who are called upon to teach the course ‘Reading in the Content Areas.’ In reading this book, I felt I had struck the proverbial goldmine: terrific course projects that will model for pre-service and in-service teachers precisely the kinds of metacognitive and discipline-based strategies that will be engaging and effective for their future students."
--Linda Miller Cleary, professor of English education, Morse Alumni Professor of Distinguished Teaching, University of Minnesota, Duluth
"Finally, a book on content area literacy with a bigger vision concerning what it means for adolescents to read in the disciplines and how teachers can support such reading."
--Stephen B. Kucer, associate professor of language and literacy education, Division of Curriculum and Teaching, Fordham University-Lincoln Center
"Braunger and colleagues offer a set of practices for engaging preservice teachers in learning how to use literacy in content teaching. Their approach is a vast improvement over former models of content-area literacy teacher education. The book is thick with resources, strategies, and reflective practices, and I look forward to using it as a resource for my own teacher education and professional development practices in large urban middle schools and high schools."
--Elizabeth Birr Moje, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Educational Studies, University of Michigan
"Unique in content area texts, the instructional strategies depicted in this work are grounded in a coherent theoretical frame and presented in real-life classroom complexities. I see many ways of using and adapting the assignments and classroom practices in my own preservice and graduate courses."
--Jayne DeLawter, professor of reading and language education, Sonoma State University
"It is refreshing to read a book geared for teaching preservice and practicing teachers that respects the knowledge they bring to the classroom and builds upon their abilities to take critical and inquiring stances on content area literacy."
--Robert Anthony Fecho, associate professor of teacher education, University of Georgia
Synopsis
Content area teachers are increasingly confronted with students who have difficulty understanding academic texts. In an effort to better prepare teachers for addressing literacy issues at the secondary level, this book makes the case for incorporating the Reading Apprenticeship instructional model into secondary teacher preparation programs in every subject. Reading Apprenticeship has received national recognition as an effective, research-based approach for improving reading comprehension in the content area classroom. This book shows what new teachers need to know about literacy and learning and how the Reading Apprenticeship framework can be introduced in teacher education programs, including suggested course protocols, exercises, and assignments.
Synopsis
The Reading Apprenticeship (RA) framework has received national recognition as an effective, research-based instructional approach that supports all students, including underachievers, in successfully engaging with and learning from academic texts. First introduced in Reading for Understanding by Ruth Schoenbach et al., the approach is based on a program with a proven record of success in boosting the reading levels of urban high school students. Emphasizing social, personal, cognitive, and knowledge-building tools, the Reading Apprenticeship approach can be useful to teachers in any content area classroom.
In Rethinking Preparation for Content Area Teaching, Jane Braunger and her co-authors make the case for incorporating the Reading Apprenticeship instructional model into secondary teacher preparation programs. Arguing that teacher education programs need to foster a broader understanding of adolescent literacy, especially if teachers are to help their students read in discipline-specific ways, the authors show how RA can serve to strengthen content-based instruction, how elements of the model can be embedded in teacher preparation curricula, and what types of course activities enable new teachers to understand and practice this approach.
Rethinking Preparation for Content Area Teaching describes a broad array of inquiry-oriented activities, protocols, and exercises for enabling teachers to gain expertise in improving adolescent readingwhether learning how to model and demystify reading processes for their students or how to assess the strengths that students bring to the process. The activities can be adapted to preservice courses in instructional methods or reading in the content areas as well as to in-service training programs.
Sponsored by WestEda national education research, training, and service agencyRethinking Preparation for Content Area Teaching is based on the research of four teacher educators who have successfully integrated Reading Apprenticeship in their teacher preparation programs. Additional contributions have been provided by members of a national consortium on Reading Apprenticeship in the Preservice Curriculum.
Synopsis
Praise for Rethinking Preparation for Content Area Teaching
"Finally, a book to help teacher educators who are called upon to teach the course 'Reading in the Content Areas.' In reading this book, I felt I had struck the proverbial gold mine: terrific course projects that will model for preservice and in-service teachers precisely the kinds of metacognitive and discipline-based strategies that will be engaging and effective for their future students."
Linda Miller Cleary, professor of English education, Morse Alumni Professor of Distinguished Teaching, University of Minnesota, Duluth
"Finally, a book on content area literacy with a bigger vision concerning what it means for adolescents to read in the disciplines and how teachers can support such reading."
Stephen B. Kucer, associate professor of language and literacy education, Division of Curriculum and Teaching, Fordham UniversityLincoln Center
"Braunger and colleagues offer a set of practices for engaging preservice teachers in learning how to use literacy in content teaching. Their approach is a vast improvement over former models of content-area literacy teacher education. The book is thick with resources, strategies, and reflective practices, and I look forward to using it as a resource for my own teacher education and professional development practices in large urban middle schools and high schools."
Elizabeth Birr Moje, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Educational Studies, University of Michigan
"Unique in content area texts, the instructional strategies depicted in this work are grounded in a coherent theoretical frame and presented in real-life classroom complexities. I see many ways of using and adapting the assignments and classroom practices in my own preservice and graduate courses."
Jayne DeLawter, professor of reading and language education, Sonoma State University
"It is refreshing to read a book geared for teaching preservice and practicing teachers that respects the knowledge they bring to the classroom and builds upon their abilities to take critical and inquiring stances on content area literacy."
Robert Anthony Fecho, associate professor of teacher education, University of Georgia
About the Author
Jane Braunger is senior research associate for the Strategic Literacy Initiative at WestEd.
David M. Donahue is assistant professor of education at Mills College, Oakland, California.
Kate Evans, formerly assistant professor of education at San Jose State University, now teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Tomás Galguera is associate professor of education at Mills College, Oakland, California.
Table of Contents
Foreword (Ruth Schoenbach).
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
The Sponsors.
The Authors.
Contributors.
1. Preparing All Teachers as Teachers of Reading: Challenges and Visions.
2. Framing Content Area Instruction with Reading Apprenticeship.
3. Apprenticing Teachers to Reading in the Disciplines.
4. Promoting Inquiry into Student Reading Practices.
5. Linking Reading Strategies to Content Instruction.
6. Broadening the Curriculum with Alternative Texts.
7. Supporting English Learners with Reading Apprenticeship.
8. Evaluating Reading Intervention Programs.
9. Partnering for Improved Academic Literacy: A University-District Collaboration (Richard D. Sawyer, Diana Bledsoe).
10. Translating Preservice Inquiry to the Classroom: Dilemmas for New Teachers.
11. Teacher Preparation for Academic Literacy: Summary and Recommendations.
Appendix A. Understanding Metacognition: Literacy Autobiography (Cathleen D. Rafferty).
Appendix B. Reading in Mathematics: Inquiry with Preservice Teachers (Virginia Draper).
Name Index.
Subject Index.