The Ready for Rigor®
Masterclass Series: Building a Cognitive Apprenticeship to Level Up Student Learning
Every Student is a Powerful Learner.
Not by Chance,
but by Design.
VIRTUAL Cohort Begins October 6, 2026
What comes after the belonging work we do in the first two weeks of school?
Most schools have embraced relationship-building during the opening of the new school year to create a sense of belonging and connection with students. The first two weeks are usually filled with getting-to-know-you activities. There’s time dedicated to creating norms and community agreements to guide the social culture of the classroom.
But, then what? How do we leverage our relationships with students to help them become powerful learners? Belonging by itself won’t increase students’ academic mindset and ability. We need to use belonging as a stepping stone to the next level of the academic community—a cognitive apprenticeship focused the craftsmanship of learning.
Deep learning begins with helping students master the craft of learning how to learn.
An Experience Built for Doing, Not Just Learning
The Ready for Rigor® Masterclass Series: Building a Cognitive Apprenticeship is a four-week virtual community of practice to support classroom teachers in putting in place the structures, processes, and routines to help all students develop the craftsmanship of learning.
In this Fall series, we’ll look at how to create a cognitive apprenticeship to complement the sense of belonging and connection established at the start of the school year.
The masterclass will be virtual and runs Tuesdays, Oct. 6-27, from 5:30 pm-7:00 pm CT (3:30 pm-5:00 pm PT/6:30 pm-8:00 pm ET). Throughout the masterclass series and for 90 days beyond, you will have access to a private community where you can continue to collaborate with others, access resources, and get ongoing support directly from Zaretta Hammond. Replays of each session will be available in our private community space along with course materials.
Prerequisites:
- Be the teacher of record of a classroom in grades 3-10 or be a coach working with a classroom.
- Be an instructional coach partnering with a teacher who has read Rebuilding Students’ Learning Power, with a focus on Chapters 3-8
What You'll Learn
The anatomy of a cognitive apprenticeship: the mastery pathways, feedback systems, and teaching modalities that make up an apprenticeship focused on learning.
How a classroom’s social and physical environment either fuels or blocks deep learning.
The nuts and bolts of setting up a cognitive apprenticeship, from writing opening scripts to coaching students’ metastrategic moves.
Protocols for teaching students to talk about mistakes and errors as information.
A week-by-week rollout plan template for introducing these shifts without derailing your content instruction.
Register for the Masterclass Series Now
4 Virtual Sessions / TUESDAYS
October 6, 2026 - October 27, 2026
3:30 pm-5:00 pm PT | 5:30 pm-7:00 pm CT | 6:30 pm-8:00 pm ET
$650.00 per person
Registration Closes October 3, 2026
About the Masterclass Sessions
In the four sessions of this masterclass series, we will build our understanding of core concepts and design a 7-10 day “implementation sprint” to get practices going into your classroom.
We’ll explore the social climate, the physical environment, and the culture of learning that together turn a classroom into a dojo, a place where students build their learning power, not just complete tasks. Along the way, we’ll show you how to do this work without abandoning your mandated curriculum or losing instructional time.
Series Overview
SESSION 1: The anatomy of a cognitive apprenticeship
SESSION 2: Onboarding students into the craftsmanship of learning
SESSION 3: Teaching students to be metacognitive
SESSION 4: Coaching students to be metastrategic
Interactive Learning
Build skills and knowledge in each interactive session.
Get Coached
Bring your dilemmas and challenges.
Build Community
We keep conversations going between meetings.
4 Virtual Sessions / TUESDAYS
October 6, 2026 - October 27, 2026
3:30 pm-5:00 pm PT | 5:30 pm-7:00 pm CT | 6:30 pm-8:00 pm ET
$650.00 per person
Registration Closes October 3, 2026
Session 1: The Anatomy of a Cognitive Apprenticeship
In our opening session, we’ll unpack why a “well-managed” classroom isn’t the same thing as a classroom engineered for building student learning power, and why this gap hits dependent learners the hardest. In this opening session, we will:
- Learn the four foundation elements of an apprenticeship you want to begin with.
- Identify one key thing to change to make in the first 7-10 day implementation sprint.
- Unpack the dojo metaphor and lay out what it takes to prepare your classroom as a container for cognitive apprenticeship.
- Create time for cognitive apprenticeship through time audits and time blocking.
Session 2: Onboarding Students into the Craftsmanship of Learning
In our second session, we will explicitly break down how to get students interested in being part of a community of learners. In this session, we will:
- Learn the three parts of the onboarding script you need to write and deliver to your class. (Hint: it isn’t telling them about how their brain works.)
- Develop a protocol for introducing the five learn-to-learn moves to students and how to coach them to use them regularly.
- Set up routines to help students track the development of their learning capacity.
- Recognize the difference between mistakes and errors, including the four categories of errors that help you give students precise, actionable feedback.
Session 3: Teaching Students How to Be Metacognitive About Learning
Metacognitive awareness is a key skill we want students to develop inside a cognitive apprenticeship. A genuine culture of learning is built on craft development and a healthy relationship with error. In this session, we will:
- Unpack what it looks like to coach students to look closely at their own personal learning algorithm.
- Set up structures that help students talk through their confusions and errors.
- Practice reducing over-scaffolding to gradually increase the “wobble” of productive struggle.
Session 4: Coaching Students to Be Metastrategic
After developing metacognitive awareness, we want to help students take the next step toward deep learning. In this session, we will:
- Learn how to build your capacity as a cognitive mediator.
- Recognize the three components of metastrategic ability for students.
- Learn to coach students to build learning habit recipes.
- Practice the basics of instructional conversation.
Who Is This For?
- Individual teachers
- Grade level teams
- Instructional coaches partnering with a teacher or team
- Instructional leaders looking to improve their walkthrough tools
Who Is This NOT For?
- Specialty teachers, i.e., music, P.E., etc.
- Solo instructional coaches. It isn’t a “train-the-trainer” model.
- Teachers looking for ‘plug and play’ engagement activities.
The Ready for Rigor® Masterclass Series: Building a Cognitive Apprenticeship to Level Up Student Learning
4 Virtual Sessions / TUESDAYS
October 6, 2026 - October 27, 2026
3:30 pm-5:00 pm PT | 5:30 pm-7:00 pm CT | 6:30 pm-8:00 pm ET
$650.00 per person
Registration Closes October 3, 2026
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