Michaela Welker - Post #3 - Routman Chapter 5

October – Post #3

Routman (2003), Ch. 5:  Organize an Outstanding Classroom Library

As a second year teacher, something that I really struggle with is building my classroom library. It’s more than just not having extra cash in my pocket, but even more is being unaware of popular titles, programs to help collect popular titles, and also just not having had time to collect a lot of titles since I have not been teaching very long. I was fortunate to have many books donated to me and also had the district buy a large amount of my books, so my library is bulkier than most teachers with my experience. However, I also have books that are outdated, unpopular, not interesting to students, and many books are above students reading level.

My goal this year is to apply for a Donor’s Choose to collect books by popular authors. My first step is polling my students and interviewing them to figure out which books, genres, and authors my students really enjoy. Then, I plan on trying to find ways to get those titles in my classroom. One way is utilizing our school and public library, so that I can get new books that are of high interest to my students. I also would like to make my library more appealing. I would like to display books in a way that draws student’s attention to them. I’d like to add more carpet to the classroom so that students feel more comfortable during their reading time and also soften the space by adding some pillows, maybe a blanket or two and have books and magazines spread out around the room. I want students to feel more comfortable in their room reading, just as I find a comfortable space in my house when I sit down and read.

One thing that I need to embrace is student involvement in organizing and establishing our classroom library. Last year, Renata really tried to break my habit of feeling like I need to do it all myself. I need to not be so controlling and let my students feel like it’s their library too. It will be beneficial in the long run because they will have a better understanding of how to navigate the library and will take ownership in keeping it organized and placing books back in their original bins. I don’t plan on weeding out outdated books just yet. I’d rather wait until I have better books to replace them before I do that. I also want to provide large zip lock bags for my students so that they can take books home to read as well and the books not get ruined. I really liked the way the chapter also discussed keeping a record of students who borrow books and I think this will be a great system for students who wish to take books home to read. As of now, I’m really protective of the new books that we have and I have a hard time letting students bring them home for fear of getting ruined or not being returned.

I thought this chapter was really insightful because when I started this year, I was confused as to how to organize my classroom library (which hasn’t been done yet-sadly). The personnel from the district office was driving into us that the library needed to be organized by Lexile levels and that students needed to know their levels, which may be helpful at first, but unauthentic. After asking Mrs. Wells, however, she said that it would probably be better to do it by genre and student interest, since that would be more authentic. Now, I have research that supports establishing libraries by the latter. Now, with all the great ideas mentioned in the chapter, I hope to make some changes to my classroom so that reading instruction is more effective and better meets my student’s needs as growing readers.