Incorporate writing instruction in your classroom as an essential element of literacy development while implementing best practices. Simplify the planning of writing instruction and become familiar with the Common Core State Standards of Writing.

The Nobel Prize-winning playwright and political activist offers a personal selection of his poetry, prose, and political writings.

Many voices: reflections on experiences of indigenous child separation.

The most common English translations of the Bible often sound like a single, somewhat archaic voice. In fact, the Bible is made up of many separate books composed by multiple writers in a wide range of styles and perspectives. It is, as Michael Carasik demonstrates, not a remote text reserved for churches and synagogues but rather a human document full of history, poetry, politics, theology, and spirituality. ¾Using historic, linguistic, anthropological, and theological sources, Carasik helps us distinguish between the Jewish Bibleês voicesãthe mythic, the historical, the prophetic, the theological, and the legal. By articulating the differences among these voices, he shows us not just their messages and meanings but also what mattered to the authors. In these contrasts we encounter the Bible anew, as a living work whose many voices tell us about the world out of which the Bible grewãand the world that it created.

Community Music in Oceania: Many Voices, One Horizon makes a distinctive contribution to the field of community music through the experiences of its editors and contributors in music education, ethnomusicology, music therapy, and music performance. Covering a wide range of perspectives from Australia, Timor-Leste, New Zealand, Japan, Fiji, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Korea, the essays raise common themes in terms of the pedagogies and practices used, pointing collectively toward one horizon of approach. Yet, contrasts emerge in the specifics of how community musicians fit within the musical ecosystems of their cultural contexts. Book chapters discuss the maintenance and recontextualization of music traditions, the lingering impact of colonization, the growing demands for professionalization of community music, the implications of government policies, tensions between various ethnic groups within countries, and the role of institutions such as universities across the region. One of the aims of this volume is to produce an intricate and illuminating picture that highlights the diversity of practices, pedagogies, and research currently shaping community music in the Asia Pacific.

On any given day, a visitor to Mary Shorey's classroom will find elementary students using a variety of learning tools, from books to wikis and blogs, to pose critical questions about the world and take action to make a difference in the lives of others. Whether sponsoring a book drive for victims of Hurricane Katrina, using a multimedia presentation to persuade the principal to adopt their recycling plan, or challenging a senior citizen's eviction, it's all in a day's work for Mary's students. Her young learners are becoming conscious consumers, creative thinkers, and effective communicators even while fulfilling the mandated curriculum and Common Core Standards. As Shorey and coauthor Penny Silvers write in Many Texts, Many Voices, "Critical literacy requires that the reader/consumer examine multiple perspectives and ask, 'Whose interests are being served?' and 'Whose voice is heard--or silenced?'...Rather than an addition to a lesson or curriculum, critical literacy is a way of thinking, communicating, analyzing, and living a literate life. Critical literacy also implies the possibility of taking some kind of social action in order to support a belief, make a difference, or simply help during a time of need." Always mindful of what is appropriate for young children, Shorey and Silvers continually search for opportunities to embed critical literacy and inquiry in the everyday lives of primary students. Through a rich array of rubrics, sample lessons, text sets, unit designs, and professional resources, Silvers and Shorey share their reflective practices so that all teachers can use print, visual, and digital tools to transform student learning.