Michelle Lanford- Jan./Feb. Post- Chapter 5 Routman

This chapter is about the importance of having a well organized and abundant classroom library. Of course we know that the more students read, the better readers they become so providing them access to many reading materials makes sense. Children will read more when there are is a variety of materials to read. I love that Routman states that it doesn't matter what students read as long as they are reading and enjoying it. I used to feel like everything students read had to be award winning books. I now realize that students enjoy reading all kinds of materials. Even books that are not of the best quality can be entertaining and provide a sense of enjoyment for students. Not that good quality books are not important as well, and she talks about that in the chapter too. The point is that they are reading. She also mentions that "light reading" can help struggling readers because they are more manageable. I agree with this. Some of my struggling readers will look at how many words there are and shy away because they are intimidated and feel they can't do it. They are much more likely to try when the text doesn't appear too long. The chapter also talks about having lots of choices for students and different genres. In my classroom I have it set up so that there are books all around the room in different centers. For example, all the math books are in a basket in the math center, all of the science topic books are in the science center, etc. I think having this organization makes it easy for students to find what they are looking for. I also have them sorted by genre. Students know where to go to find a specific genre they may be looking for. This also helps keep the books organized and eliminates crowding when students are looking for books while making them very accessible from all over the room. Routman talks about the importance of book discussions and sharing. My students love to talk about what they are reading. We do this each day after independent reading. I feel pretty good about my classroom library even though I know one can never  have too many books. I plan to just keep adding to it.