I actually really enjoyed reading Routman Chapter 5 because a classroom library is something that has been a big issue in my classroom the last couple of weeks. When I first got to my placement I was overly impressed with the organization and creativity of the whole classroom... except for the class library. Over the last few weeks we have gotten really into independent reading where the students are allowed to pick their own books. We observed that the excitement level has not been the highest with these kids and so we began to brainstorm what some of these reasons could be.
One of the things we came up with was that picking out the books was not exciting to the students because the library was so disorganized and it took the kids way too long to find a book that intersted them. We sat down for a long time and tried to think of ways we could re-arrange the library to keep it organized as well as make it a little more fun for the students.
This was a really fun project for me because I got to have a big say in this organization process. The first thing we did was organize the books into levels, then into categories. After that we decided to make colorful labels to let the kids know what the different sections were. Then I came up with the idea to let each kid pick out a book every week and put it on a "reccomendation display case". We made the library more colorful, more organized and more personal, then we sat back and watched for any changes to happen.
The excitement level of reading for these kids shot up immensely. I couldn't believe that simply changing the layout of the library would make such a difference but it absolutely did. The kids were eager to go the classroom library and sometimes I think they read solely so they could go back and pick out another book. They loved the reccomendation part and really found ownership of their reading through this. Going through this experience was so exciting for me as an aspiring teacher because it showed me how simply changing one aspect of your classroom can enhance the learning level in your classroom tremendously.
Can Messy Learning Make A Comeback?
11 months ago
Tiffany--I feel the same way you first did about your classroom library--my teacher's library is lacking in the sense that it is disorganized. She has a lot of great books but not enough room to put them all, for me I would have it set up so differently but it has been frusterating becuase I do not know where a lot of the books are in the classroom and a lot of them are hidden behind other stacks of books. I think it's awesome that you had a chance to help shape your classroom. I will have to come down and admire it! To read more about what I had to say about my classroom library click here)
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