Still Learning to Read: Thinking About Books and the Classroom Library

This is one of a series of blog posts that continue the conversation around Still Learning to Read--teaching reading to students in grades 3-6.  This series will run on the blog on Tuesdays starting in August 2016.

It is August 1st so  many of us are busy getting our classrooms ready for our new students!  We start school in 2 weeks and there is lots to think about.  I have been in twice and thought I'd share a piece of the process I've been through so far. 

My room after being cleaned this summer--my view from the door!

Reorganizing books always takes the most time for  me. I love the room design thinking --especially after reading The Third Teacher and the Language of Room Design a few years ago. I love thinking about spaces in the room and the ways they might support student learning and I will post about those spaces in the next week or two.  Today I'll focus on some of the thinking that I've done as I've thought about revising the classroom library from how we left it in the spring to how it will support students early in the year. I know students will love different books as beginning-of-the-year third graders than my end-of-the-year third graders enjoyed by springtime last year.  So taking a look at the series baskets and the organization is important. I always begin by asking myself lots of questions:

• Which books were popular last year?
• Which books did kids not read--are there any books or series that are maybe outdated?
• What kinds of books support readers early in the year?
• Which books should I highlight during the first few weeks of school to support independent reading?
• Which books did not get enough use because they weren't accessible to kids?
• Which new books/series might I add to the classroom library?
• Are there any authors that I want to highlight early in the school year?

Our meeting area is an area that I have used recently to highlight books we have read or learned from recently.  A few years ago I added this bench from IKEA that would house those books, knowing they would rotate so kids would have easy access to books that we had read recently.  Last year, I started #classroombookaday, a classroom practice that Jillian Heise and Donalyn Miller created. It is a daily that is one of our favorite times of the day. We end each day with a picture book and log these on a wall above our cubbies. Kids loved this time and revisited the books often throughout the year.  I had a basket for these books thinking I'd rotate them in and out as they became less popular but kids used all the books all year.  So this year, I wanted to have a space dedicated to #classroombookaday--a space that I knew would be big enough to hold all of the books we read and one that will grow as the year goes on. I found this to be extremely important to 3rd grade because this routine valued picture books and most kids read a few picture books every day because of it. So I bought several large white baskets to house these books during the year.  There is also space for other baskets that will rotate based on our current units of study, readings, etc.

Another area that I changed was my poetry area.  Last year, I had two full three-shelf units of poetry books. The kids almost never read them. They were spine out on the shelf and weren't engaging enough for kids.  I weeded my poetry collection down by about half and decided to display them differently. I purchased more of the baskets that I used in the meeting area because they hold lots of books that kids can browse by puling the basket to the floor next to them.  At first I used the white baskets but then realized I had 5 gray baskets -the perfect number for the poetry collection I had.  I know that visual clues are important to young children so having all of the poetry in gray baskets will be another way for them to think of them as one area of the classroom library.  I housed them on the bottom shelf of another 8 cubby shelf from IKEA. On the top shelf, some students will house their individual book bins. (Still to do: Label the baskets as poetry.)

My next job was to go through the chapter books in the classroom that were no longer front and center. Our classroom library changes throughout the year as we discover new series, change as readers, grow out of some books and into others.  Because of that I have to go through the books and pull those books that I know will be important to have out early in the year.  I am thinking about what kids might read but also about how to make sure to value books at various levels so that students do not get the message that long difficult books are what is valued in the classroom. I want to introduce them to books that they fall in love with--books that help them develop behaviors as readers early in the year.  This is the stack I pulled today, knowing I have to create new baskets to replace baskets most readers won't get to until the end of the year. All books will still be part of the classroom library because readers need access to lots of books but the books I highlight in baskets and in displays will focus on lots of books like those I pulled today.

Finally, I take a look at books we've discovered recently. I feel lucky as a third grade teacher that so many authors and publishers see the need for quality transitional chapter books. It seems there are new ones coming out more regularly lately.  When a new series begins, it is usually only a book or two but as time goes on, series grow and they are in need of their own basket/space in the classroom library. These are some of the new series we discovered last year and that will be great supports to readers early this year.  Just when you think you have more baskets than you need, you find that you need just a few more. So a new order of baskets is on its way to me from amazon and they will house these new series as well as a few others.

I think I have about 4-5 more hours of work thinking about and revising the classroom library for the fall.  I plan to go in one more day to just focus on that job--pulling the books that I want to highlight to independent reading, weeding through picture books and nonfiction to reflect on what changes are needed there, and creating new author baskets in both fiction and nonfiction areas of the library. Lots to do but some of the most important work to get ready for a new group of readers!

How are you rethinking your classroom library to be ready for the first weeks of the school year?

(You can follow the conversation using the hashtag #SLTRead or you can join us for a book chat on Facebook starting September 1 by joining our group here.)

Our new edition of Still Learning to Read will be released on August 15 but you can preview the entire book online at Stenhouse!