A Path to Deeper Learning with Reading Apprenticeship
What if every educator, regardless of content area, could support students in reading, thinking, and making meaning like insiders in their discipline?
That’s not a hypothetical.
At Abington Heights High School in Pennsylvania, it’s happening.
Teachers from every discipline came together across three professional learning sessions over the course of the school year to focus on how students read, think, and make meaning within and across diverse texts within disciplines. Facilitated by Alicia Ross and Sunny Weiland, two Reading Apprenticeship facilitators with years of experience implementing the framework, the sessions were built around a deceptively simple idea: metacognition doesn’t belong to any one discipline; it belongs in every classroom.
Metacognition Starts with Seeing Yourself in the Work
For metacognitive practice to take hold across a school, every educator has to believe it applies to them. That’s harder than it sounds. Health and physical education educators, art educators, and technical instructors may not see themselves in conversations about reading and thinking strategies, until the definition of “text” expands beyond traditional conception of words on a page.
That’s exactly what Alicia and Sunny did. By treating diagrams, movement, visual representations, and technical schematics as texts worthy of close, reflective reading, they made metacognition relevant to every educator in every discipline. As Dr. Christian Calder, Abington Heights Supervisor of Teaching and Learning, reflected, the session “succeeded in helping educators beyond the core disciplines see themselves in this work.” This is a critical foundation for building metacognitive practice across an entire K–12 system.
A Vision for Reaching Every Educator
This work was grounded in a clear and intentional vision from the district and school leadership team. Led by Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Michelle Kaas, and supported by Principal, Dr. Lee Ann Theony, and Dr. Calder, the administration articulated an approach designed to meet educators where they are. They communicated their vision with the team at WestEd and Alicia and Sunny designed and facilitated the tailor-made learning to this broad audience of educators.
Dr. Kaas reflected on the district’s decision to revisit and expand their commitment to Reading Apprenticeship:
When we began to think about how to expand opportunities for students to engage in skills and strategies that could help them be successful readers and responders across content areas, we wanted to circle back around to Reading Apprenticeship (RA). We had done extensive work with RA in prior years, but felt that we needed to take more explicit steps to ensure that all of our content area teachers had a concrete understanding of the strategies they could use in their varied classrooms to reinforce and expand student access to and understanding of text.
Dr. Theony described the early momentum this work created by saying,
The early-year launch proved to be a pivotal moment. When we asked for a show of hands from those already deeply engaged in this work, it immediately surfaced a network of potential thought partners across disciplines. That visibility established a strong foundation for sustained growth.
The district’s vision and the subsequent design work recognized the breadth of the audience – not only across all disciplines, but across varying levels of knowledge and experience with Reading Apprenticeship. The goal was to introduce the framework to those new to the work, reinvigorate those with prior exposure, and extend the practice of those who were already strong implementors. This layered approach ensured that professional learning was both inclusive and forward-looking, positioning disciplinary literacy as a shared responsibility across the entire high school.
Deeper Learning Requires Thinking about Thinking
Reading Apprenticeship is grounded in the understanding that deeper learning doesn’t happen when students simply consume content. It happens when students become aware of their own thinking when they are engaging with that content. This includes where they get confused, what strategies help, and how to push through difficulty to make meaning of complex, disciplinary texts.
The most recent professional learning session included the introduction and practice of three routines (e.g., LINK, Survival Words, and Word Detectives). These are not abstract concepts. They are tools designed to help students access complex texts, build vocabulary, and activate prior knowledge, which are the building blocks of independent, reflective learners. Dr. Calder noted that these routines “have strong research backing and will contribute to measurable gains in comprehension and student independence over time.”
Metacognitive Practice Only Works if it’s Sustained
Professional learning can build a foundation for better teaching. Sustained practice is what produces deeper learning for all students. Alicia and Sunny built sustainability into the work from the start, providing resources including The First Four Weeks joverview, to give educators a clear progression and reduce the ambiguity that so often derails follow-through after professional learning experiences.
Equally important, they remain available as thought partners throughout the year. As Dr. Calder emphasized, “Ongoing support is what moves professional learning from awareness to consistent classroom practice.”
Dr. Theony pointed to peer collaboration as a key driver of that sustained practice with,
Since then, we have developed at least a dozen active partnerships in which teachers are observing one another and inviting reciprocal observation as they implement these practices. This cycle of collegial feedback has strengthened both instructional quality and professional collaboration.
Consistent practice is the only path to classrooms where metacognition becomes second nature for educators and students.
The Classroom Impact is Already Visible
At Abington Heights, educators are aligning their practices across disciplines, students are engaging more deeply with content, and classrooms are becoming places where thinking is visible, valued, and actively taught. That’s what metacognition across classrooms looks like in practice.
Dr. Theony captured how this shift is reaching students:
Most importantly, the impact is now evident in students’ experiences. This work is no longer confined to English and Social Studies; it is being implemented across disciplines. The tools are now present in every classroom, positioning us to see meaningful gains not only in student engagement but also in overall student outcomes.
Reading Apprenticeship is not an added program layered on top of existing instruction. It is a framework for the dimensions of classroom life that has at its central feature metacognition and prioritizes extensive reading opportunities in all classrooms and for all students. When every educator in a school owns that work, not just core disciplines, the impact on student learning compounds across every discipline, every grade, every day.
The work ahead remains just as significant. But Abington Heights is proving that when metacognition lives in every classroom, deeper learning follows. Interested in how Reading Apprenticeship and Writing Apprenticeship can strengthen learning across your school or district? Connect with us!
We would like to dedicate this article to the memory of Barb Moss, a beloved Biology teacher and Reading Apprenticeship facilitator whose tireless work in her classroom, along with the support she offered to so many colleagues, helped lay the groundwork for this work at Abington Heights. Barb passed away last spring and is deeply missed by both the Abington Heights community and the Reading Apprenticeship team. Her legacy lives on in the profound impact she has on her former students and fellow teachers.
Co-authored by Jenell Krishnan (WestEd), Alicia Ross (WestEd), Sunny Weiland (WestEd), Christian Calder (Abington Heights), Michelle Kaas (Abington Heights), and Lee Ann Theony (Abington Heights)
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Post Date
April 30, 2026