The Reading and Writing Project LLC was established a decade ago in an effort to extend the reach of the parent organization, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. The RWP provides literacy professional development to schools in a score of other nations, as well as in cities and towns across America, and develops ideas that are foundational to literacy instruction across the globe.

Led by Lucy Calkins, author of more than twenty best-selling books and the Robinson Professor in Literacy at Teachers College Columbia University, the Reading and Writing Project’s home-base is in Connecticut. The parent organization, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, is located at Teachers College, Columbia University, and has for three decades been the premier provider of literacy professional development for schools in New York City and beyond.

The mission of the RWP is to enable young people to become avid readers, writers, and inquirers. We accomplish this goal through research, curriculum development, and through working shoulder-to-shoulder with students, teachers, principals and superintendents. Our research has led us to develop state-of-the-art knowledge about the teaching of reading and writing in grades K-8, and about methods of differentiating instruction, using formative assessments and supporting content-area literacy. The Project’s methods of coaching teachers and supporting whole school reform have been widely influential. Because we function as both a think-tank and a community of practice, thousands of teachers regard the Reading and Writing Project as a continual source of professional renewal and education.

Books written by the project director, Lucy Calkins, and by current and former staff members and mentor teachers are best-sellers, and the influence of those books is wider and deeper than most people could possibly imagine. The ideas developed by this community of practice are foundational to reading and writing workshop instruction across the globe. Well over 100,000 teachers have attended our week-long institutes and many participants return to an institute year after year. Calkins also co-leads the Literacy Specialist Program at Teachers College—graduates are in influential positions throughout the world.

We have been able to function as a resource for others because we are engaged in deep study together. Every Thursday for thirty years, all the staff developers and leaders have devoted the entire day to participating in an intense, collaborative think-tank. Because the RWP and the TCRWP place high value on maintaining long-term and close affiliations with schools and districts, this means that we, like you, have learned to adapt to new pressures and challenges, while still holding tight to a commitment to joyous, lifelong literacy. The organization has continued to be a visionary force while also accommodating to pressures of the day. Calls for data-based instruction, differentiation, accountability, systematic instruction, standards and the like have strengthened rather than thwarted the organization’s vision.

The trajectory of this learning community is strengthened by close links to national literacy leaders and school reform experts, over 30 of whom join us each year. Recently we (and the teachers with whom we work) have learned from Peter Johnston, Dick Allington, Tim Rasinski, Maurice Sykes, Doug Reeves, Kylene Beers, Stephanie Harvey, Ellin Keene, Mike Fullan, James Comer, Katherine Bomer, Brenda Parkes, and Alfred Tatum. New York City’s location at the publishing capital of the world allows us to bring children’s authors to Teachers College. During 2010, visiting children’s authors include Katherine Paterson, Kate DiCamillo, Mem Fox, James Howe, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Deborah Wiles, Jon Scieszka and others.

If one defining feature of the Reading and Writing Project is that it is designed to be a learning community, another is that the boundary around both this organization and the TCRWP is permeable. There is no gatekeeper to this learning community—any individual and any school wishing to “ be a member” is one. Teachers who learn from and with the RWP and the TCRWP often regard this affiliation as integral to their professional identity, and schools, too, see the affiliation as one that defines their character. Members are contributors as well as learners. The community is exponentially enriched because many of the teachers, principals, scholars and superintendents who have maintained a deep involvement give back in a reciprocal fashion. Scores of our schools regularly host visitors, for example, and participants share through Facebook, email, and above all, through sustained relationships with each other. This network is what the Project is all about.

If you would like to apply for staff development services, please refer to Professional Development Services. You needn’t wait, however, before tapping into the resources on this website and in our many publications.