Leading Well: Building Schoolwide Excellence in Reading and Writing

"I'm convinced that Howard Gardner was right when he suggested that all leaders need chances to retreat to the mountains.  I hope this book gives you metaphorical mountains. I hope that Leading Well allows you to step back from the hurly burly of school leadership, to see far horizons, to breathe a new kind of air, and to return home with new energy and vision. And more than that, I hope the book helps you give the teachers and children in your care their own metaphorical mountains; because in the end, good leaders create leaders."

―Lucy Calkins

In Leading Well: Building Schoolwide Excellence in Reading and Writing, Lucy Calkins draws on the transformative work that she and her colleagues at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project have done in partnership with school leaders over the last thirty years. Travel to any corner of this country, inquire about the schools that are winning acclaim for their joyous and rigorous schoolwide literacy work, and you’re apt to find yourself hearing about the results of the remarkable community of practice that has taken root around reading and writing workshop instruction.

This book, like the work of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project itself, is deeply research-based and principled, while also absolutely practical and real-world tested.  Leading Well will provide you with the inspiration and energy you need to rally your teachers to outgrow their own best teaching practices and tackle predictable challenges.

Additionally, Leading Well will remind you that you are part of a vibrant community of practice. You’ll learn not only from Lucy Calkins and from contributing authors, Mary Ehrenworth and Laurie Pessah, but also from talented, tenacious, and imaginative school leaders who are creating new horizons for the world of education.

The book is for school leaders who’ve invited their teachers to join them in the exhilarating work of adopting a dynamic, rigorous, student-centered language arts curriculum. It is for school leaders who have taken on the challenge of transforming their whole school into a place where everyone’s potential, for learning and for growth, is sky high.

Mary Ehrenworth, Senior Deputy Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and co-editor for the Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Middle School series, works with schools and districts around the globe, and is a frequent keynote speaker at Project events and national and international conferences. Mary’s interest in critical literacies, deep interpretation, and reading and writing for social justice all inform the books she has authored or co-authored in the Reading and Writing Units of Study series as well as her many articles and other books on instruction and leadership.

You can connect with her on Twitter @MaryEhrenworth.

Laurie Pessah is Director of School Partnerships where she has responsibility for staffing the Project’s work with several hundred schools in New York and around the country. She is co-author with Lucy Calkins on A Principal’s Guide to Leadership in the Teaching of Writing.  She is also co-author with Lucy Calkins on Small Group Work in Phonics, Grades K–1.

As a former principal and assistant superintendent,  Laurie continues to support school leaders in developing a coherent plan for their district, while also supporting  staff developers in their work in districts.