Apprenticeship in Literacy

This easy-to-read text will guide K-3 teachers as they develop a reading and writing program for all their students. An apprenticeship approach to literacy emphasizes the role of the teacher in providing demonstrations, engaging children, monitoring their understanding, providing timely support and, ultimately, withdrawing that support as the child gains independence.

Drawing on authentic classroom examples—student writing samples, class schedules, photographs, and rich transcriptions of teaching and learning interactions—the authors illustrate instruction that is aimed at children's learning zones. As children become more competent readers and writers, the instructional interactions are adjusted to accommodate their higher-level learning.

Here is a wealth of in-depth information, specific strategies, and organizational formats in literacy areas such as:

• principles of apprenticeship literacy;
• learning to read from a cognitive apprenticeship approach, including the roles of read-aloud, familiar reading, and shared reading;
• guided reading, including flexible grouping, reading and writing links, and instructional interactions that emphasize problem-solving strategies;
• helping children develop writing strategies through interactive writing, writing aloud, and revising and editing transactions;
• transitions in children's independent writing, including their relationship to modeling and coaching demonstrations during assisted writing;
• helping children acquire phonological knowledge, including activities that guide children in manipulating letters, sounds, and spelling patterns;
• a typical day of putting it all together in two apprenticeship settings: a first-grade classroom and a Title I reading program;
• using school-based professional literacy teams to support teachers in developing an effective literacy program for their children.

No detail is lost. The authors also cover such practical matters as establishing routines and organizing the classroom environment, including rotation schedules for meeting with small groups of children, lists of materials for establishing literacy corners, and literacy corner activities designed to provide the children with opportunities for independent practice.

With Apprenticeship in Literacy you can achieve a balanced literacy program that works for all your students.

Table of Contents

About the Author(s)

Linda Dorn is a professor of reading education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she is the director of the UALR Center for Literacy. She teaches graduate classes in literacy theory, research, classroom practice, and literacy leadership.
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Cathy French and her coauthor Tammy Jones are experienced classroom teachers who, as Early Childhood Curriculum Specialists with the Arch Ford Educational Service Cooperative in Plumerville, Arkansas,
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Tammy's been a Title I Reading Specialist, Reading Recovery Teacher, and Teacher Leader for 15 years. She earned her degrees from the University of Central Arkansas and University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
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Reviews

Education Book Review - Fall 1998
"Dorn et al. have created a thoughtful, useful, very practical and applicable text that will appeal to educators interested in reaching those at risk readers present in every elementary school." Education Book Review, Fall 1998