Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

Carol Booth Olson, Ph.D., is an associate 

professor in the Department of Education at 

the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and 

director of the UCI site of the National Writing 

Project. Her research focuses on the impact of 

cognitive strategies–based professional devel-

opment and curriculum design on the read-

ing, thinking, and writing ability of students 

in grades K–12, with special emphasis on the 

academic literacy of mainstreamed English 

language learners in middle and high school. 

Dr. Olson received the NCTE’s Alan C. Purves 

Award in 2007 and the Richard A. Meade 

Award in 2009 for outstanding research in the 

field of English education. She is the author 

of The Reading/Writing Connection: Strategies 

for Teaching and Learning in the Secondary 

Classroom (3rd edition).

Staff

The panel would like to thank Julie Miller and 

the team of WWC certified reviewers for their 

contributions to this practice guide. The panel 

would also like to thank Ryan Devlin and 

Shannon Waite for their review of this guide.