Even Hockey Players Read: Boys, Literacy and Learning

Susan Thomas is a middle-school guidance counselor, teacher, and social
worker in Milton, Ontario.

“Literacy education requires change in leadership,” asserts Michael
Fullan in the foreword to this excellent manual. It is directed
primarily at principals charged with the task of creating literate
school communities in which teaching teams are developed for the purpose
of making decisions about literacy initiatives designed to ensure that
all students acquire the skills necessary for success.

Four chapters address the nature of leadership, literacy principles and
practices, literacy initiatives, and formal and informal assessment
procedures. There are checklists for in-school schedules, suggestions
for professional reflection, annotated reading lists, and charts that
can be used to summarize what needs to be addressed in the
implementation of the program. A unifying thread is “leadership
voices,” a series of reflections by several principals that serve as a
constant reminder of the need for principals to take risks, to model
good teaching, to encourage leadership on the part of staff, and to
provide support to teachers, students, and teaching teams.

The Literacy Principal is a must-read for leaders in all of our
schools.