Stories surround us, support us, and sustain us. We see and hear them when walking down the street, on our digital newsfeeds, in our interactions with one another, in the ways our students play, and in literature, poetry, music, images, multimedia, and dramatic works. While acknowledging the importance of teaching students strategies to read different kinds of text, to write across genres, and to speak and listen with purpose, Katie Egan Cunningham reminds us that when we bridge strategy with the power of story, we deepen literacy learning and foster authentic engagement. Story: Still the Heart of Literacy Learning compels us to ask crucial questions: Why do stories matter? Whose stories count? Where do stories live? How do stories come alive? How do we build stories? How do we talk about stories? And why does this work take courage? Katie shares her story as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, staff developer, and professor. She shows teachers how to create classrooms of caring and inquisitive readers, writers, and storytellers. Katie explains specific ways to build a classroom library that reflects our diverse society through rich, purposeful, and varied texts. She also provides numerous examples of multigenre and multimodal stories from children's and young adult literature, poetry, songs, and multimedia. The practical toolkit at the end of each chapter demonstrates how to make stories come alive in any classroom.

Take time in the middle of life for your dreams. That is the message of this lighthearted true story of a Dallas couple who, in mid-career, sold their house and cars, bought a boat, and sailed around the world. Author Liza Farrow-Gillespie tells of pirates, storms, sharks, cannibals, and - scariest of all - 24/7 exposure to her husband's sense of humor. She also relates the joy and personal growth that can come from a zig and a zag along the path of life. Liza Farrow-Gillespie is an attorney, musician, and writer. During the sailing circumnavigation she published articles in Ocean Navigator, Cruising World, and Blue Water Sailing. Her husband Alan Farrow-Gillespie, M.D., is a pediatric anesthesiologist and former captain in the United States Air Force.

"Larry W. Jones has written over 3,500 song lyrics with island based themes. Most are in the sytle of the "hapa haole" return-to-paradise tradition of the golden years of Territorial Hawaii"--Volume 7, title page verso

Recontextualized: A Framework for Teaching English with Music is a book that can benefit any English teacher looking for creative approaches to teaching reading, writing, and critical thinking. Providing theoretically-sound, classroom-tested practices, this edited collection not only offers accessible methods for including music into your lesson plans, but also provides a framework for thinking about all classroom practice involving popular culture. The framework described in Recontextualized can be easily adapted to a variety of educational standards and consists of four separate approaches, each with a different emphasis or application. Written by experienced teachers from a variety of settings across the United States, this book illustrates the myriad ways popular music can be used, analyzed, and created by students in the English classroom. “Together, this editor/author team has produced a book that virtuallyvibrates with possibilities for engaging youth in ways that speak to their interests while simultaneously maintaining the rigor expected of English classes.” – Donna E. Alvermann, University of Georgia