Sheridan D. Blau

Sheridan Blau, Ph.D., is Professor of Practice in English Education and former Director of the Program in the Teaching of English at Teachers College, Columbia University. Before coming to Columbia, he was Professor of English and Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where for over three decades he served as Director of the South Coast Writing Project and the Literature Institute for Teachers. He also served for many years as the director of the UCSB Composition Program and program head of the teacher-education program in English. He has been honored with awards by his university and by national professional associations for his teaching, for his research, and for his contributions to the profession of English.. He has served as a member of the Assessment Development Panel for National Certification in English for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, as a Senior Advisor to the California Test Development Committee for statewide assessments in reading and writing, and as a member of the English Academic Advisory Committee to the College Board. He also directs the National Literature Project Network and served for twenty years as a member of the National Writing Project Advisory Board and Task Force. He is a former President of the National Council of Teachers of English, serving as a member of the presidential team from 1995-2000. Dr. Blau has published widely in the areas of seventeenth century literature, composition theory, professional development for teachers, and the teaching of composition and literature. He has also written and edited textbooks and pedagogically oriented scholarly collections in composition, reading, and literary study for students in middle school, high school, and college classrooms. Now in its 13th printing, his most influential book, The Literature Workshop: Teaching Texts and Their Readers (Heinemann, 2003), was named by the Conference on English Education as the winner of the 2004 Richard Meade Award for outstanding research in English education.