Manuel Castells is Professor of Communication and the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, as well as Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, Research Professor at the Open University of Catalonia, and Marvin and Joanne Grossman Distinguished Visiting Professor of Technology and Society at MIT. He is the author of, among other books, the three-volume work The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture.Carl Anderson is one of the nation's leading experts on teaching writing to students in grades K-12. He dedicates his energies exclusively… as an education consultant and writer. Carl recently worked for Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University as a Lead Staff Developer, providing staff development in the teaching of writing grades K - 8. He spent school days in New York City elementary and middle schools demonstrating effective teaching in the writing workshop and coaching teachers. He gave day-long workshops for teachers at Teachers College on launching the writing workshop, conferring with student writers, mini-lessons, and developing curriculum for the writing workshop. As a national consultant, Carl works with schools, districts and educational organizations around the country. He is known for his keynote speeches and courses at writing institutes as well as for his presentations at national conferences. Carl also taught for eight years in the Bronx, New York, Bardstown, Kentucky and Northbrook, Illinois in grades five to eight. In his book, How's It Going? A Practical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers, Carl leads readers through the challenging but essential terrain of learning to confer with student writers. The book includes an in-depth discussion of the teacher's role in conferences, strategies for teaching students to take an active role, ways to weave literature, mini-lessons, classroom management strategies, and responses to the most frequently asked questions about conferring. Carl also authored Assessing Writers and the series Strategic Writing Conferences: Smart Conversations that Move Young Writers Forward Grades 3-6.