Classroom Library Organization Begins....

So, I'm going back to the classroom next year. I'll be teaching 2nd grade for the first time and I'll be on a new team in a new school. Lots of new, I'm really excited! I like change. One of the first things that popped into my mind when I began imagining things I wanted to do differently than I used to was my classroom library. I left a good chunk of my beloved library behind (because it had been purchased with school money) but I own a great deal of books too. As a first grade teacher, I had most of the books organized by Guided Reading level, and then some genre tubs. I don't have pictures, but it was kind of like this.

Anyway, as I have grown in my understanding and read a lot about such things, and I have changed my opinion on how this should be done. There a several factors I want to take into consideration when organizing the library and setting expectations for classroom book selection;

• Instructional reading level as defined by the F&P Benchmark Assessment= 90-95%
• Independent reading level as defined by the F&P Benchmark Assessment= 96% or higher
• Timothy Shanhaan's thoughts on the subject
• Common Core Text Complexity Bands (page 8 of Appendix A)
• My own experiences with students and how they should and do select texts for themselves

In the end, this is where I have landed...

If you check this post, you will see some of the work I did to start wrapping my brain around pulling the guided reading levels and CCSS text complexity bands together. After that work was done I decided that I wanted to reflect those bands in my library organization without over emphasizing the high, medium or "lowness" of them...does that make sense? I basically didn't want to just number them 1, 2, 3. So I settled on colors, specifically colored masking tape, for organization. 

There is my copy of the chart, which I just added the tape colors to. This isn't very profound, I know. Basically its separated by grade level ,but its not cut and dry (especially if you look closely at F&P guided reading levels.) The picture doesn't show this well but the first color is yellow and the 3rd one is lime green! I chose the tape for a few reasons, its bright, I can easily get more, and it allows me to cover the previous circle stickers with letters on them, by wrapping it around the corners like so:

These are new books ( rom the Scholastic Warehouse Sale!) so they didn't have the circle stickers in the top right corner, but the other 200 books I have in storage do :( Once again, I am trying to get away from kids or myself saying "Your'e reading level D books." With this new color coding system I will be able to direct my kiddos to a color  they should be reading within (based on assessment data) but then also work with them to build their capacity to independently choose "just right books."  In other words, I'm trying to honor and understand these words from CCSS Appendix A:

So once I figure out storage of the "ranges" of texts ( I'm thinking maybe these......because then I can put them on the floor around the edge of the room or on top of other shelving?) students will be choosing books for their book boxes from the color they have been assigned, but  growing in their understanding that even within the red bins, some books are going to be hard, some are going to be easy, and some will be just right. 

I'll post pictures once I get in there and get things set up. I'm excited about this new way of thinking and the possibilities for my new 2nd grade readers!