Here is the letter that kicks off the journal every year in my classroom. It is largely adapted from Nancie Atwell's book, In the Middle. A copy of the letter is taped on the inside cover of each students' journal.

Dear reader exemplar letter.doc

This article provides information about Dan Lortie's research, specifically "The Apprenticeship of Observation."

Example of the project guidelines for musical connections with classroom novels/literary texts; also easily adapted for other subjects:

Musical Connection project guidelines.doc

Adapted six-traits rubric:

Six-traits adapted rubric.doc

This article features the idea of Music of the Week and how to incorporate music into the everyday secondary classroom:

Music As Literacy.doc

What's your FLAME?

Gardner's Entry Points.doc

Secondary Literacy Session: PowerPoints

Are posted here: http://rememberit.org/sessions.aspx