Music educators have long understood that musical skills and concepts are best taught through quality literature. In Recycle Your Literature, author Diane M. Lange shows general music teachers how they can truly get the most out of the songs they teach by bringing them back year after year to scaffold and reinforce learning.

As in Together in Harmony and Together Again in Harmony, Lange combines the learn-by-doing approach of Orff Schulwerk with the sequencing of music skills in Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory. In this book, she focuses specifically on how repurposing literature throughout a child’s elementary education serves and enhances both methods.

Recycle Your Literature is divided into two sections. Part 1 contains a brief explanation of Music Learning Theory, Orff Schulwerk, and the conceptual lesson plan. Part 2 follows with sample lesson plans that showcase how the same song can serve different musical goals every year in grades K–5. Each lesson plan is complete with information about concepts, skills, objectives, equipment (if needed), the teaching process, and assessment.

This practical resource will keep things fresh for elementary music teachers and ultimately achieves the main goal of every music educator: to develop independent musicians who can intelligently communicate their musical ideas.

Diane M. Lange is Professor and Music Program Director of Field Experience at The University of Texas at Arlington, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Early Childhood and Elementary Music Education. She also teaches early childhood music at her private studio, The Musical Treehouse, and is author of two other books published by GIA.