I have always been told, " make your classroom library inviting to students". But, has anyone ever given us a guide on how to do this? As a fairly new teacher, I have found organizing a classroom library can be a difficult and time demanding chore. I really like how this chapter "Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library" gives us insight on how to do this.
I know my initial hurdle as a new teacher was having enough books for my students. I wanted to provide my students with lots of choices of books. This chapter makes me think back to all of the ways I chose to collect books for my students. During my first year of teaching, I would go to the public library once or twice a month on Fridays and check out 25 books at a time. This allowed me to rotate my books according to students' interest and instructional units. Another way I remember collecting books was going to Goodwill. I stalked their children's book area for all of the popular titles I could think of. I would make list of the books I wanted and check them off as I found them. I love a good bargain, and I would find new to lightly used books for fifty cents a piece. Scholastic book club was also a way I started to build my classroom library, and I continue to use them to this day. The author says " An adequate classroom library will have at least two hundred books, but an excellent library will have more than a thousand." This is my goal today to have more than a thousand good books in my classroom library.
When organizing my classroom library I want to make sure that I have a workable system for my students. I love how the author suggests that we should involve our students in the organization of the classroom library. I believe this will help my students to remember how to return books to their proper homes and how to properly care for books. The author also talks about making your classroom library more appealing to students. This year I decided to add colorful pillows to my library and display books on the tops of shelves. I have noticed that the books on display are the ones that students are most eager to read. After doing this I can see an improvement in the amount of students who like to visit our classroom library. My students always notice when I put new books on display and love to ask questions about the new books.
My favorite quote from the chapter is, "Make sure you are doing all you can to provide children with interesting and outstanding reading materials and the time to read them." I relate to this because I believe that teachers should be doing all that they can to get good quality books in the hands of students, and in return giving them time to enjoy them.
It is that "time to enjoy" that gets pushed to the side many times in busy classrooms. Thank you, Corrie, for reminding of that important point! I like that your students, the very youngest of our school, notice when you change the book display. I know that you feel so good that you are helping to build a reading life for each of your students.
ReplyDeleteHi Corrie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that classroom libraries are an essential component in effective literacy instruction. Having one is only part of it, ensuring that students are able to use it to choose books that are interesting to them and are on a wide variety of levels, topics, genres, by a variety of authors is the challenge and the joy of it. I also loved your last quote. My favorite quote from the chapter is, "Make sure you are doing all you can to provide children with interesting and outstanding reading materials and the time to read them." I relate to this because I believe that teachers should be doing all that they can to get good quality books in the hands of students, and in return giving them time to enjoy them." Agreed! Sincerely, Dawn