As I read Chapter 5 I began to think about my classroom library and what was good and what needed to be improved upon based on the suggestions made by the author. At the beginning of the chapter, there is an emphasis of having a large classroom library. I believe this is a positive for my classroom. My entire back shelf is dedicated to housing books of all sorts. In fact, it can be quite daunting at a quick glance. But the bigger the library means more choices for the students which is extremely important.
I chose to organize my library by genre and author, not by level. When books are leveled it can serve as a literacy cage that traps students into one specific area. It does not allow room for reading exploration. My class library has genres from historical non-fiction to poetry to biographies. This format, I believe, allows students to "genre shop" to find a style that is appealing to them. And when students are interested in what they are reading they become better readers.
There are a few points made in the chapter that I would like to incorporate into my classroom. I would like to create a place (possibly on the back shelf) to display "hot" new books for the week. They can be related to topics of study, upcoming holidays, or new releases from favorite authors of students in my class. I would also like to have a bin specific to magazines that girls and boys would like to read. I loved reading sports magazines when I was a child and this was a gateway into more substantial books for me.
I have tried to create an atmosphere in my room where students see the value and importance in a classroom library and books in particular. A great library can open new doors and give children free choice to read and learn about things they are interested in, not what I want them to read.
Hi Caleb,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 100% that as teachers we want to organize our classroom library around our students' interests as readers and to work to make sure that the texts are accessible in ways that our students can search and find topics, genres, and authors of interests. While levels can be helpful for us to recommend just right books and/or to use in guided reading, we do not want to limit our students by them when organizing our libraries. I am glad that you found Routman's Chapter 5 suggestions helpful. I did too! I loved her "Now" "Next" suggestion of how she and her students work to create lists of books that they are reading right now and a list of ones they want to read. This serves as a very authentic recommendation list and can also provide us and our students with a record of what we are reading. Thank you! Dawn
Thank you, Caleb. I agree that you have a very inviting classroom library, and organized well for students to make selections. I like the idea of the "hot books" area. Anything we can do to create interest in books will serve to benefit our students. I can't wait to check out the new section!
ReplyDelete