No river can return to its source, yet all rivers must have a beginning.
Native American Proverb

Are you one of those people who plan your first day of school, and then spend weeks rethinking those plans? No wonder so many of us do. Our classrooms and schools will look and feel very different at the end of the year than they do in August, as we are welcoming children and greeting colleagues again after the summer. The first greetings, activities, and conversations are the wellspring that start us off on a year that will lead to who knows where in our learning. For better or worse, those first days and weeks set the tone for the entire year.

This week we've got some suggestions for first activities and conversations with literacy at the center - from read-alouds that provide comfort to nervous students and laughter to all, to books designed to spark conversations with colleagues, to a fun icebreaker room tour activity for that first day of staff meetings. Enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

Free for All

A chance encounter with a colleague in a bookstore gets Shari Frost thinking about how we choose books to read aloud on the first day of school. She asks her colleagues for their favorite choices, and provides their suggestions across genres for grades K-6:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/403.cfm

Jim Trelease is the go-to source for explaining to parents, colleagues, or administrators why read-aloud is so important. He has concise excerpts from his classic book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, posted on the web:

http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah_intro_p1.html#pagetop

Thanks to the hundreds of literacy teachers, specialists, coaches, and principals who participated in our summer workshops and made them such a success! We hope to see more of you this fall in Maine at our September and October weekend events. You can get the details at our Fall Workshops link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm

For Members Only

Franki Sibberson finds books of all kinds - from novels to children's literature to professional texts - are a great way into conversations with colleagues at the end of the summer. "My Summer Book Bag" might give you some ideas for books to share with colleagues (or a short list of new titles you might want to browse yourself before the leaves start turning):

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/401.cfm

Curriculum Specialist Barbara Coleman discovered room tours fostered terrific discussions about learning environments among colleagues. This is a fun activity for a back-to-school inservice day, especially if you're looking for a "break" exercise that gets everyone up and moving. Her advice for structuring the one-hour activity includes suggestions for focus questions, timeframes, and setting up observation teams:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/402.cfm

"The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) help a colleague think through how to display artwork early in the year that will be up a long time - in this case, student self-portraits. Their simple tips in this five-minute video will have your classroom walls looking a little more like an art gallery:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/404.cfm

That's all for this week!