Laura Riemensnider's Blog post #3 Routman, Reading Essentials, Ch. 5: Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library

Routman, Reading Essentials, Ch. 5:  Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library

            In my opinion a classroom library should be the heart of your classroom. I agree with what Routman wrote about it being difficult to maintain a strong reading program without an excellent classroom library. Routman discusses how the availability of reading materials greatly impacts children's development. We know this to be a fact based on research.

When I look back on my first classroom library when I began teaching, I had a large number of books. These books were saved from my childhood, purchased during my student teaching and collected from spending the summer stocking up from yard sales and thrift stores. I have a natural love for books and so purchasing these books was important to me. What I didn't know at the time was it was unusual for someone fresh out of college to have so many books that they personally provided for their students. What is more common is to see our first year teachers inherit an empty classroom, have very few personal possessions that they can bring into a classroom, and are adjusting from ending their college days. They are expected to dress like professionals, have reliable transportation, and most likely they're paying off student loans. And all of this is happening before they receive their first paycheck. When they walk into the empty classrooms they're relieved to know that they have a check for a couple hundred dollars waiting on them for supplies. What they don't know is that the majority of that is going to go to hand gel, Kleenexes, pencils, storage containers, zip lock bags, and items to make their classroom look inviting. It's unrealistic to believe that all first year teachers have the resources to build and maintain an ideal classroom library. I feel that over time with encouragement and support (like schools and districts providing books and storage items) that these young teachers can have an ideal classroom library.  As a reading coach and a seasoned teacher, I feel is it important to try to pick up a few books along the way to donate to these new teachers starting their classrooms. I'm proud that our district is providing some books to stay in a classroom library this year and I hope this continues. In the past we have tended to view classroom libraries as solely the teacher’s responsibility to provide. A well-stocked classroom library should be something that we in education should strive to make a necessity and not a luxury. Providing the physical materials that these children need to learn should be the responsibility of schools, district, and community as a whole.

        This chapter on how to organize an outstanding classroom library is chock full of excellent information, wonderful tips, things to consider, and ideas to help jumpstart a beautiful well organized and well used classroom library. One of the things that Routman mentioned, that spoke to me, was the fact that we should have multiple copies of our popular titles inside our libraries so that those books don't disappear over time. I also feel that you should have multiple copies on hand so that you can use them in a variety of ways.  Routman says reading with a partner is a great way to use multiple copies, but I would add that you could also send those popular titles home every now and then. The ones that you read the most with the students are the ones they know the best. They can take pride in being successful when sharing them with their families.

       Another point that I really have never considered before was to involve the students when organizing in designing your classroom library. It makes a lot of sense that if the students help to build it then they're going to take ownership in it. They will want to visit and use the classroom library more. In fact, they're probably mentally plotting and planning which books they want to read in the future. This idea was an eye opener! I plan to have my book club kids help me reorganize or add some of their ideas to  improve our small classroom library.