Blog Post 3 Amanda Maciejewski Chapter 5 in "Reading Essentials" by Reggie Routman- Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library

      I have always taken pride in my classroom library. Being an avid reader, I have always made sure that my classroom had great literature on many different levels. However, after years and years of buying books, I realized my books were growing like a vine all around my classroom. There were books everywhere, in baskets, on bookshelves, in buckets, and in folders. I had no organization. A couple years ago I tried to organize my books to make it easier for my students to find a book they would like to read on a specific subject area. This has worked for my subject area books, but I wanted to read more on ways to have an even better classroom library.
     In chapter 5, Routman discusses providing books on a student’s interest instead of levels. He states students read more and develop positive attitudes about reading when the students suggest what books should be added to a classroom library. I have always been the one to pick out the books in my class. Reading that gave me the idea to let my students pick out books from the scholastic catalog for our classroom. This would help get them involved in the buying of our classroom books. They would also pick out books they would want to read. I want my students to be lovers of reading and I think this would help.
     Another section of Chapter 5 that I would love to try more in my classroom is having more book talk. I think my students would love creating a “Top Ten Book List” for our classroom. This year my students are very excited about our Readers Workshop. They love learning about books and what they can do with them. We are constantly talking about books and reading books. Creating a top ten list would give some of my students that read the same books every day, the encouragement to try another book. In writing these next few weeks we are talking about lists. My students could actually write a list of their favorite books during writing time.
     Regie Routman also discusses the importance of including nonfiction books in our classroom libraries. Through our nonfiction animal units, I have been able to see how much my students love nonfiction books. I have to be honest; I did not have many nonfiction books in my classroom until I saw how much my students loved them. Routman states that students can learn a lot about the world as they are learning to read. Many of my ESL students have a lot to learn about our world and increase their vocabulary about our world. Reading nonfiction books can help with both.
     This chapter has truly helped me see many ways I can improve and organize my classroom library. I actually could not finish reading the chapter before I was on Pinterest looking up more book bins for my books. I wish I could just snap my finger and the bins would be there on Monday. I am really excited to get into my library and organize it more.