|
 Lucy Calkins is the Founding Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University's Teachers College. For more than twenty-five years, the Project has been both a think tank, developing state of the art teaching methods, and a provider of professional development. In these capacities, the Project has supported hundreds of thousands of educators. As the leader of this world renowned organization, Lucy works closely with policy-makers, superintendents, district leaders and school principals to instigate and sustain school-wide and system-wide educational reforms. But above all, Lucy works closely with teachers and with their classrooms full of wise and wonderful children. Lucy is also the Richard Robinson Professor of Children's Literature at Teachers College where she leads the Literacy Specialist program. Lucy's many books include two foundational texts, The Art of Teaching Writing and The Art of Teaching Reading. This series Units of Study for Teaching Writing, Grades 3-5 has a sister set: Units of Study for Primary Writing; the DVD Big Lessons from Small Writers; and One to One. Lucy and her husband John are parents of two sons, Miles and Evan.
|
|
 Co-author Mary Chiarella is a fourth grade teacher at PS 59 in Manhattan. As a former staff developer and teacher-researcher at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Mary has helped hundreds of teachers and administrators learn how to design state of the art reading and writing workshops across the country. The doors to Mary's classroom are always open to have others come in and learn alongside her and her students.
|
|
 Co-author Kathy Collins is also the author of Growing Readers, a book for teachers about units of study in the reading workshop. She has worked closely with Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project for over a decade. In that time, Kathy has been both a researcher and a staff developer. She has played a major role in the Project's summer institutes and led leadership groups for teacher-researchers. More recently, Kathy has served as reading specialist for the Project, leading the organization's work in the area of primary reading. When working with teachers, Kathy draws upon her years as a classroom teacher at PS 321 in Brooklyn, New York, as well as on her work supporting the Project's staff developers. Currently, she works in schools and districts around the country to support classroom teachers as they improve their literacy instruction. Kathy lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband and their two young sons, Owen and Theo.
|
|
 For many years, co-author Colleen Cruz was a general education teacher as well as a team teacher in an inclusive setting at PS 321, an elementary school in Brooklyn. In her current position as a staff developer with the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, she works closely with teachers, coaches, and administrators in New York City and around the country to make reading and writing workshop accessible to all students. Everywhere she works, Colleen rallies teachers to join together in adult writing groups, and to become researchers of their children. Colleen is also the author of the young adult novel Border Crossing, as well as Independent Writing, a book for teachers. Colleen Cruz has spent over fifteen years studying the craft of fiction.
|
|
 As a staff developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, contributing author Cory Gillette has mentored teachers and literacy coaches, and she has led leadership groups comprised of master teachers who research topics including essay writing, conferring, and accountable talk. Cory's own teaching experience took place in large urban schools in Philadelphia, Connecticut and New York. An advocate of urban school reform, Cory draws on her teaching experience and her work as a staff developer in city schools as she speaks at conferences across the country.
|
|
 Contributing author Ted Kesler was a classroom teacher for fifteen years before joining the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project as a staff developer and becoming a doctoral student at Teachers College. In Ted's years as a teacher, New York Times columnist Jacques Steinberg became a participant observer in Ted's classroom, writing a series of feature articles portraying his teaching and life in his New York City classroom. As a teacher, a staff developer, and a researcher, Ted is committed to excellence and equity in education. When Ted is not teaching, he loves playing the violin, writing poetry, and spending time with his family and his dog, Bashert.
|
|
 Contributing author Marjorie Martinelli brings a background in art to her work as a classroom teacher. For years, she has worked as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, teacher-researcher and an adjunct teacher at Bank Street College of Education. As a staff developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Marjorie currently helps teachers throughout New York City and in other locations across the country learn to lead effective reading and writing workshops. Marjorie has also worked collaboratively with classroom teachers in leadership groups which have inquired deeply into specific topics including writing in the primary grades, the role of literature in a writing workshop, and managing rigorous and gracious writing workshops. Marjorie is the mother of two daughters, Katherine and Christina, and her inspiration to write and to teach comes from them.
|
|
 Contributing author Medea McEvoy is Director of Literacy for the New York City Department of Education. Before assuming this role, she was a classroom teacher at PS 6 in Manhattan where, for years, her classroom was a research and demonstration site for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project's work. She has been a leading member of Project think tanks and leadership groups, and teaches educators from around the country every summer at the Project's institutes. Medea has a background in both art and school leadership, but her first love is literacy education and literature.
|
|
|
