Chapter
2
Organizing
a Classroom Library
“Classroom libraries are a literacy necessity; they are integral to successful teaching and learning and must become a top priority if our students are to become thriving, engaged readers” I loved Routeman’s emphasis on the classroom library. I too believe that a classroom library is important. I have put a lot of time and money into collecting books for my library. My heart still skips a beat when I pass by a Goodwill with an extensive book collection or a garage sale featuring a supply of children’s books. I LOVE collecting books for my classroom library. While the LOVE is there for collecting the books, the same love is not there for the organization of these books. What way should I organize the books that is going to be best for my classroom and my students? Like other teachers, I spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year teaching about choosing Just Right books. I read Goldilocks and The Three Bears to the class and we discuss how we want our book to be just right like Goldilocks wanted the bed, chair, and porridge to be just right. I model choosing a just right book for me. I work with students one on one to practice choosing just right books. However, I still find my 2nd grade students struggling to choose books that are just right for them. This has led me to believe I should change my library from being organized by topic to be leveled. However, in this chapter Routeman encourages us to de-emphasize leveling books in our library. She points out that students do not naturally gravitate to leveled or overly structured collections. However, I’m stuck. I want my students to benefit most from independent reading time which would mean them reading just right books from our classroom library. I still have a handful of students who choose books well above their level simply because they like the cover and they see their peers reading these books. So, while I see the benefit of leveling books from this stand point, this contradicts Routeman's organization suggestion. One thing that may help is that Routeman suggests displaying books so they entice readers. Displaying lower level books to entice these readers might be one thing I could do to help this problem.
I agree that displaying lower level books may entice your readers to choose them! When I was in the classroom, a lot of my readers were beginning to transition into chapter books. A few would want to check out three chapter books at once! We spent time conferencing on "just right" books and how it was okay to read outside our "reading range." However, one cannot ALWAYS read outside our reading range or we won't grow as quickly as we would otherwise. I would allow them to check out one chapter book and encourage the other two to be whatever they wanted. It could be a picture book, a magazine, a drawing book, a comic book. Of the three books, at least one of them (preferably the chapter book) had to be within their reading range. The other books could even be a book they had previously read and wanted to reread because it was a favorite. As far as your classroom library, as long as they have a library book that is within their flexible reading range, they will find more books they connect with by having them arranged by topic, theme or genre. Yes, they may pick a book that is too easy. However, this will help with fluency...and usually they will finish it quickly! If it is too hard, chances are they will lose interest quickly, or if their interest is really high they will struggle through it and build their reading vocabulary! Something can be gained by all levels of reading. Chances are none of the books they choose are too far from their reading range set by STAR, You never know, they may surprise you and be able to read a more difficult book...as you conference you can find out just how much they are getting from the book! Picking "just right books" is a learning process over time...fifth grade teachers are still teaching them how to find the right one!
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