Our family lives on a small lake in Maine, and just across the water is a large old Victorian hotel. The place looks like a big old wedding cake, so it's not surprising how popular it is during the summer for receptions. On any warm weekend night in June or July, we can throw open the doors to our deck and dance to a playlist that doesn't vary much - "Daddy's Little Girl" or something similar for the father-daughter dance, old-time rock and roll to get everyone up and moving early on, "We Are Family" and the "Hokey Pokey" before the young ones start fading. If we're feeling frisky, we can even step lively for a quick chicken dance before midnight.

You'd think the noise would be irritating, but it isn't. There's something lovely in the image of those bridezillas and their moms letting their hair down and enjoying the big night, of generations coming together and bonding to a similar soundtrack, weekend after weekend.

It's amazing how music binds us, and sets a tone for anything that follows. Chef Ina Garten ("The Barefoot Contessa") notes the music playing when you walk in the door is far more important than the food at any dinner party - certainly hearing the Beach Boys blaring puts any guest in a different mood than Vivaldi.

Few teachers and other literacy leaders use music in classrooms or professional development settings. You might hear a quick transition song in children's reading and writing workshops, but there's mostly silence as people shuffle in for staff meetings and study groups in schools. The right song can make us pause or laugh when we're rushing on, tired and distracted. It's a powerful tool in any educator's bag of tricks.

This week we've got a soundtrack of songs recommended by Choice Literacy contributors for everything from background music in first-grade classrooms to inspiration for a staff discouraged by low test scores. No one will be doing the electric slide anytime soon at a faculty meeting, but even if the music recommended never moves beyond your iPod, there is probably a song or two that will get you thinking about literacy and teaching in new ways. Plus more as always - enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

Free for All

Reflective? Rollicking? If you're trying to set a tone for anything from an assessment team meeting to a one-minute transition in a second-grade classroom, our Music for Literacy Leaders playlist has just the right song for you:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/616.cfm

This is one of those brilliant freebies on the web that makes you instantly feel smarter - a "periodic table" of visual literacy. If you're confused about the difference between a "radar chart" and a "concept fan," you can click on the related links and view examples. This is a useful site to bookmark for reference when you're designing graphic organizers, with over fifty different visualization methods all available on the same web page:

http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html#

A hearty welcome to our newest site license members from White Plains, New York; Streamwood, Illinois; Phillipsburg, New Jersey; Cedar Springs, Michigan; Land O'Lakes, Florida; and Chesterfield, Missouri, as well as our renewing site license members from Shawnee Mission, Kansas. If you are interested in a Choice Literacy site license for your school or district, details and a registration form are available at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department63.cfm

If you're working to build reading assessment into the daily routine at your school, you may be interested in our one-day CAFE in the Classroom workshops this summer offered in Maine, Ohio, Washington, and Oregon. This popular and easy to implement assessment system created by The Sisters is designed to help teachers integrate reading assessment and goal setting into their student conferences and small groups. Participants each receive a copy of the CAFE in the Classroom DVD, a $229 value. You can access more details on the workshop and download a registration form at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/618.cfm

For Members Only

Video Room Tours remain one of the most popular features at Choice Literacy. This week Maureen Knostman takes viewers on a tour of her bright and busy kindergarten classroom in Dublin, Ohio:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/619.cfm

Summer is the time when many teachers finally have the chance to review scores of new children's books and young adult literature, considering which ones should be added to classroom and school libraries. This week, we've got a trio of articles to help you think through book choice, and how best to match texts to readers.

In "Just Because It's Skinny, Doesn't Mean It's Easy," Franki Sibberson writes about her evolution in choosing books for transitional readers in grades 2-4. Franki includes a handy list of criteria for evaluating whether new short chapter books are appropriate for young readers:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/617.cfm

Two more articles on the book choice theme from the Choice Literacy Archives -

Shari Frost questions our impulse to move young readers into long and complex chapter books in literature circles too quickly in her article "Just Because They Can, Doesn't Mean They Should":

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/148.cfm

Finally, Rina Moog pauses for a moment to think about the "educator angst" she feels in bookstores, and what that says about ourselves as readers:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/259.cfm

That's all for this week!