After leaving Western Carolina University where she was an Associate Professor of language arts education for eight years, Dr. Katie Ray is now a full time writer and researcher of the teaching of writing. With a particular focus on the study of writing craft, she leads teacher workshops and summer institutes across the nation related to the teaching of writing. Her professional background includes both elementary and middle school teaching experience and two years as a staff developer at The Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University.

Katie is also the author or co-author of seven books on the teaching of writing: Spelling in Use: Looking Closely at Spelling in the Whole Language Classrooms (1996, NCTE); Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom (1999, NCTE); The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They¹re All Hard Parts) (2001, NCTE); What We Know By Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop (2002, Heinemann); About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers (2004, Heinemann); Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop (2006, Heinemann); and the newest book Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten (2008, Heinemann). She has also published numerous articles and book chapters, and is the former co-editor of the journal Primary Voices K-6, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.

A frequent speaker at conferences and summer institutes around the country, Katie also has extensive experience teaching teachers in workshop and demonstration settings.

Grades: K - 8