I chose
to read this chapter because it has been my goal for the last couple of years
to create a classroom library, and of course I want it to be outstanding. Last year,
I worked really hard organizing my books by authors, topics, and genres and I
even had our literacy coach come in and level all of my “student books”. This year
I printed labels for each book that matched the book basket labels so that, students
would have no problems putting them back in the correct basket. “Student books”
are what I refer to as the books in my classroom for students to read. I have “student
books” and I have teacher books that I use for teaching lessons. I have always
been terrified to let students use my teacher books because I don’t want to
have to replace them and the majority of them are too difficult for my students
to read independently. Well after all of that work, I still haven’t placed all
the labels I printed on my “student books”, so I started asking myself, why? I believe
that the books in my classroom library are not high interest enough for my
students, especially after reading chapter 5 in Reading Essentials. I also do
not believe that I have enough books on varying levels for my students’ ability
levels. I know this statement is silly but it true it is extremely expensive to
buy, and print labels and I don’t want to use them until I have an adequate
classroom library. I guess I need to just try it out. I agree with Routman that
having a library with books that are high interest will lead to students
reading more and more. This year I have allowed students to choose what they
read. They read library books, their basal reader, and decodable readers right
now during reading workshop, but my goal is to start allowing them to check out
books as I planned at the beginning of the year from our classroom library and
not just the school library. I will never understand why all research says that
children need to read lots of high interest books but somehow all of our money
is spent on textbooks instead of high-interest/high-quality books for
classrooms.
I feel your frustration! If we know kids need to read books to become better readers, then why do we not have more secure funding for books? I am thankful that we have some advocates at the district level--it is thanks to them that we got the 100 new books from Scholastic. It's a start!! As for your current books, I'm wondering if you could work with your kids to design a system that makes sense to them. That way, they can help you organize/maintain the classroom library without all those expensive labels. Like you, I kept a separate collection of teacher books at first. I slowly started integrating "my" books with "their" books--I found that these "special" books got destroyed less because of their special status, and I also rotated them in and out with units, so their shelf life--and risk of damage--was shorter.
ReplyDeleteHi Lyndsey,
ReplyDeleteLike you, I would love to have more classroom library books. I am thankful we have the 100 new books coming and I am always on the look out for places that provide used books to teachers at a reduced cost. Pages on Pine book store in Spartanburg and Mr. K's used books in Greenville are two of my favorites. I also love buying used on Amazon too. I agree with you that it is important for our students to have ownership over the books in the classroom library and to be able to engage with them not just during the school day but to be able to take them to read afterschool and at home. I know that sometimes we have students who move and take books with them and/or they get lost but I am convinced that when students value something they care for it and the opportunity for them to read is worth the risk. I want to encourage you to consider a system that would work for you and for your students. Thank you for all you are doing to instill a love of reading in our first graders! Sincerely, Dawn