This study examined how the professional development initiative of Reading Apprenticeship (RA), which included the support of a school-based literacy coach, impacted two high school Title I teachers and their students. In the field of education, much is known about the qualities of professional development which lead to improved learning on the part of teachers and students. Teachers need intensive instruction related to changes in practice and ongoing support for classroom implementation. There also must be school-wide commitment to new practices, so teachers are not alone in their efforts. Using a sociocultural perspective, this study underscored that teachers bring "funds of knowledge" which shape their identities, beliefs, and sense of agency. A review of current research also detailed multiple complications, many contextual, which schools experienced when they tried to implement literacy or instructional coaching. To further extend the available research on professional development and coaching, this qualitative study produced a narrative analysis of the lived-experience of a coach and Title I teachers in an urban Midwestern high school. The researcher was the literacy coach in this study, and her story is part of the narrative. She visited the classrooms weekly from November to June. As a participant observer, she conducted formal and informal interviews, classroom observations, video and audio recordings, field notes, participant journal entries, student records, and documents with the goal of narrating descriptions of the teachers' experiences that preserved their voices. Analyses focused on: the physical environment and classroom locations, teachers' varied commitment to implementing RA, their agency in the face of bureaucratic and institutionalized structures, teacher-student relationships, and the engagement-disengagement of students. The researcher concluded that teachers were subjugated by mandates, helped by spaces for inquiry and collaboration, and able to exercise agency and feel empowered at times, but the larger system of schooling was broken. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]