Teaching of reading and writing. Writing across the curriculum. Reading Development. Supporting All Learners, Children's Literature. The Politics of Reading Instruction. Standards. School leadership in ELA. Decodable Books. Literacy Coaching.
I lived most of my life on a farm outside of Buffalo, with my 8 brothers and sisters, attending public schools in Hamburg, New York. I graduated from Williams College in 1973, and began teaching in Hartford, Connecticut alternate learning center for high school students who were disengaged with school. I received my teaching credentials through a Teachers Corps program. Realizing I had a lot more to learn, I traveled to England and apprenticed in the British Primary Schools that were, at the time, heralded as providing state-of-the-art educational opportunities for young children. After that intensive year of learning, I joined a team of teachers in creating and teaching within an alternate public school in Middlefield, Connecticut. While in that role, I began writing, wrote many articles, and became an editor of Child Magazine. After four or so years teaching, I was asked to become part of the first big National Institute of Education study of children as writers, and so I joined Don Graves at the University of New Hampshire. We studied 8 writers in detail for two years, and produced results that are credited as changing the teaching of writing throughout the world. This led to my first two books, and the research I did with Graves became part of my PhD at NYU. Since graduating with honors from NYU, I have been on the faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University, eventually becoming the Robinson Professor of Children's Literature and the Founding Director of the former Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, an organization that has helped thousands of schools with their instruction in reading and writing. I am the Founding Director of the Reading and Writing Project at Mossflower. Throughout all this time, I have been writing for publication. My proudest writing accomplishment is a series called Units of Study in Reading and in Writing. I have two sons, a stepdaughter, 8 siblings and grandchildren on the way.