Jinger Willard Blog Post 5 (Dec.): Routman Chapter 5: Organizing an Outstanding Classroom Library

An outstanding classroom library is something I’ve always wanted to have but have not ever been quite able to achieve and maintain to the standards discussed in this chapter.  Most recently, moving states and switching grade levels has put me in the position of starting my classroom library over from scratch, twice.  At the beginning of each school year, when I had a larger book selection, I always had my new group of students organize my classroom library as part of our review of genres.  This also served as a way to get them familiar and excited about the books available in our classroom. I would have them make a list of books in their journals they were interested in reading as we worked on organizing books by genre and topic.  Students couldn’t wait to get their hands on the books once we finished organizing.  Routman’s chapter reinforced the value in doing this.  I have never had my library organized by reading levels.  Over the years I have felt the pressure to level my books based on reading programs being used at the school or district level, but I never quite seem to get that far.  This chapter helped to relieve the pressure of the need to do this.  I agree when Routman talks about the importance of paying attention to students’ interests and de-emphasizing leveled books. I can remember going to the public library as an elementary school student and choosing books I liked based on those that were displayed and caught my interest or based on topics I enjoyed.  These books were not leveled. My teachers never told me I had to choose books with a certain colored dot or reading range.  I never considered the level of a book when choosing them, but I was somehow able to find books appropriate to my reading abilities.  Programs like AR can sometimes pigeon hole students into a certain level, and they often feel discourage to reach beyond their level.  How else can we build our knowledge and vocabulary unless we are challenged with text that we read?  If a student is interested in a book, their engagement will help them to overcome some of the challenge a book might present.  This belief was supported by the quote from this chapter “reading comprehension test scores are more influenced by students’ amount of engaged reading than any other single factor”.

This chapter also helped to further motivate me in my goal to incorporate more reading into the content areas.  I would like to include “math reading” into my “Daily 4” math stations.  I am on the hunt for math content books that engage students in the text but also require them to apply problem solving skills.   Overall, this chapter reinforced many of my own theories and beliefs.  My classroom library continues to be a work in progress but am encouraged that I am on the right track.