Steven Zemelman has worked in many capacities to promote the sustainability of innovative schools in Chicago. For eight years he directed the Center for City Schools at National-Louis University and he is a founding director of the Illinois Writing Project. He has spearheaded the start of a number of innovative small high schools in the city. And he now helps guide the Chicago Schools Alliance, a network of diverse Chicago schools learning to work together in new ways to strengthen teaching and learning, build teacher leadership, and reduce the isolation that schools and teachers so often experience.
Together, Zemelman and Harvey Daniels have coauthored five books and videos with Heinemann, including Best Practice: Today’s Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools, Third Edition (2005), Subjects Matter: Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading, Rethinking High School and its companion video (2001), and A Community of Writers (1988). These books are filled with practical strategies for making writing, reading, the content areas throughout a school, and indeed the life of a school itself into a deeper and richer learning experience for kids. Now, Daniels, Zemelman and Nancy Steineke have created Content Area Writing (2007) to provide teachers in all areas with practical and energizing strategies that make writing a powerful tool for learning their subject matter. These strategies range from brief, easy-to-use reflections that help students learn right in class to the bigger public writing projects that can make school truly memorable for kids and teachers alike.
Zemelman consults with schools and districts around the country and may be contacted directly at stv.zemelman@comcast.net
