Chapter 5 Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library focused
on having a well-balanced/organized library and how it is aligned with a
successful independent reading experience for your students. Having a classroom library that focuses on providing
material/books that are engaging for all students, will help support and foster
independent reading. In order to achieve
this, teachers need to find out students’ interests, favorite authors, and/or
series. According to the chapter, “While
levels can be a helpful guide for teaching students, we need to be careful to
factor in the quality of the text and students’ interests. ( Routman, 2003). Currently as I reflect on my classroom library,
one would see books arranged by lexile levels.
After reading this article, I now see how that can hinder independent reading
time. Struggling readers can easily
become discouraged because a fellow student may be selecting a book from a
higher level that seems to peak their interest, but is not in the “correct
bucket.” Furthermore, I have decided
that grouping books by a series or genre may present itself useful. This will also allow for me more time to
discuss with students how to choose just right books for them. After all, when going to the local book
store, books are not grouped by lexile numbers, but by authors and series. It leaves me to question why I decided to
arrange my classroom library differently.
The answer was clear, because that it what I have seen from other
educators. A goal I am going to work on
is reorganizing my classroom library to appeal to my students.
Looking at the questions in the Take a Critical Look at Your
Classroom Library section, one stuck out to me the most. The question: Can children find books in
which their language and culture appear, or are they unlikely to “see
themselves” in the collection?, really left me in deep thought. As all reading educators do, I teach students
how to make meaningful connections to books.
How truly can they make connections, if there are none to be made? It almost would seem to be forced if a
connection is made. It would be nice to
incorporate more cultural books inside of my classroom library.
As discussed in a previous blog, I have incorporated
independent reading time into the reading block. I am still searching for more time to allot
to independent reading time and modeling what it is. What I would also like to create is a share
time for students to engage in small talk about the books they are reading with
their peers.
Krystal, I simply love the point you made with saying that our local book stores don't arrange by Lexiles, why should we? I would love for our kids to get that same Barnes and Noble "feeling" when they get to visit the libraries in their classrooms. Let me know if you would like a hand in reorganizing your library! We can also work on finding more books that reach all the cultures in your classroom!
ReplyDeleteHi Krystal,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your willingness to consider the ideas and suggestions presented by the authors of our texts to impact your classroom practice. I recently had an article accepted for publication by SCCTE that made the very same point you made in your blog - that our public library organizes books by genres, authors, and topics and yes, they have the levels available on the book but those levels are for parents and for teachers, not necessarily to dictate to the students what levels they have to choose for independent reading. Thanks, Dawn