Overcoming Obstacles in Implementation

Although Reading Apprenticeship is a great way to help students learn to read, it is possible that there will be obstacles when teachers try to implement this program.  Individual needs of students can always present a challenge to teachers.  Schoenbach believes that ALL readers will benefit from the reading apprenticeship program.  Even the best readers will need to be prepared for new and unfamiliar text in college or their career.

Lower level readers should 95 percent of the time be reading at their reading level in order to build fluency in comprehension.  According to Schoenback (1999), "..some of the least-proficient readers may need activities in addition to SSR and extra support to develop into fluent readers.  In addition, a major obstacle to building fluency for poor adolescent readers is the stigma they feel when they can read only what they consider baby books with ease.  Reducing or eliminating this stigma is key to helping them.  The author recommends a book called Buddy Reading to help eliminate stigma for low readers.  This book is written by Katherine Samway, Gail Whang, and Mary Pippitt.

This book talked about how decoding is usually not the issue with older children and yet they continue to get held back for "decoding issues".  However, this chapter discusses that if decoding is still a problem the students may possibly have language or learning problems and a teacher should utilize the resources of the special education teacher or department.

Second language learners benefit from the reading apprenticeship program because it gives them strategies that help them to make sense of what they read.  According to Schoenbach, "ESL learners benefit not only from strategic reading instruction but also from extensive and broad reading.  Extensive reading on a particular topic builds background knowledge and specific vocabulary, including semantically related words" (p. 142).

"When subject area teachers think about embedding a reading apprenticeship approach in their classes they foresee a deep tension arising between the ever-present pressure to cover the curriculum and the goal of helping students become independent readers and learners.  But in our experience, when teachers make the commitment to help students in the beginning of the year establishing comprehension rituals that support students and lead to increased independent reading throughout the year, this initial investment does not necessarily displace content coverage." (Schoenbach, 1999, p. 144)  The teacher should balance this out depending on what works for him or her.

Extensive reading in a subject area is important because it helps build background knowledge.  A teacher will need to look for several types of text on the same topic in order to help.  SSR might be a great activity for the beginning of a class period to help with reading the text and connecting them to the curriculum.

Test pressures c an detour teachers from wanting to teach using the reading apprenticeship program, however they should consider the fact that test scores improve once reading habits and attitudes toward reading improve.  When students enjoy reading overall their test scores increase.