An Up-Close Look at the Classroom Library

I know I've posted on this before, but I've had some questions. So here is the illustrated tour of my second grade classroom library:

First off, the leveled book section...If you want to know more about the levels, how they correlate with F & P or DRA, see this post from the summer. Basically the important things to point out here is that the shelves were $20 each from Goodwill and the plastic bin were $5 for 6 at target. Well, thats not THE important thing....but its one of them :) The numbers on the outside are there to remind the students of how many of the level they should have in their book box at a time. They find out what bins they should take from in reading conferences with me. If you are familiar with levels of reading you know that the very beginning books are extremely short and students usually need 8-10 to keep busy reading. This is why they take a minimum of 8 books from yellow. I know there is discussion from teachers about how many chapter books should really be reading at the same time and so some of you might disagree with 4 lime green books or even 2 teal books in a book box at once. My thinking about that is this; at this very moment, I have 3 books on my nightstand and 2 in my purse. I am reading only 2 of them and the rest are lined up waiting for "their turn"....my students deserve to do the same!

 

You can see in the photos below that the books are not letter or number labeled...I gave that up when I switched my library organization up. Instead, I used colored masking tape on the corners to indicate the level and help with quick organization. Once again, if you want to know more about the color levels, see this post.

As far as the other books go (which I refer to choice books) here are the details:

• I have them separated into literature text (animal characters, poetry, realistic fiction, etc) and informational texts (biographies, magazines, science, jobs, etc.) 
• The books are each labeled in the top corner of the front corner of the cover and the informational text have a start sticker. This is how we tell informational apart from literature. 
• I have the informational book bins on a counter and the literature text on some shelving that wraps around the room. 
• Most students have just one of each kind at a time, sometimes more. 
• The bins themselves are from IKEA and I have found them to be awesome storage for large books like these...

I really like this organization and for sure have had less issues with organization and book treatment this year. Taking the time to label and look for just the right bins was a pain, but I am so glad I did!

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!

For those of you who have been teaching primary grades, centers are not new for you. But what having students visit different areas in the room, to engage in a variety of actives was part of our social studies and science instruction? What if instead of cracking open social studies textbooks or jumping into science experiments from our FOSS or EIE kits, we had a day or two set aside for centers? K-8 teachers, I want to challenge you to think about some of these compelling reasons to engage in this type of teaching for the purpose of increasing your student's learning. 

Centers are;

* An opportunity for students to engage with content in a variety of the ways, many "access points" 

* Requires deep thinking about content, rather than "sit and get"

* Students learn from conversation with one another, defending opinions, justifying thinking  with text evidence 

* Allows for differentiation in task, support, and thinking

* Great chance to generate and answer "big questions"

* Lends to  thoughtful CCSS connections

* Builds independence and ownership of learning

Here are some ideas for centers that could become part of your instruction regardless of the center;

Statistics Center- looking at graphic or numerical representations of the content, consider infographics

Photograph Center- photos from textbooks, articles, internet. Diagrams and drawings that represent scientific content

Listening center- audio of speeches or video clips related to content

Write around center- photo, statistics, poem or passage in the middle, students respond by writing around, and the respond to one another by writing around each other's comments

Text to text- two texts on the topic/content that students read and compare/contrast. Two article with opposing viewpoints, two primary source documents from the same time 

Of course students need to know what your expectations are for the centers, and that does take time. Once students know what the expectations are for the photograph center however it doesn't matter if the photos are of the civil rights movement, science content, or even a math diagram, they know what to do. 

Planning centers that span over several days, within the context of your collaborative team can greatly enrich student learning! 

Five Child-Centered Principles to Guide Your Teaching- from Sharon Taberski

1. It's better to do fewer things well than many things superficially

2. Balanced Literacy is a menu, not a checklist

3. The parts of our balanced literacy system should work together as a system

4. We learn through multiple exposures over time

5. Our practices should be developmentally appropriate

Comprehension from  the Ground Up, Heinemann 2011

Book Lists

On her blog www.allaboutcomprehension.blogspot.com, Heinemann author Sharon Taberski has listed some recommended books for different instructional purposes and reader interests, here they are as of today, but check back there as she adds to the lists often:

Short and Sweet Chapter Books: Older Elementary-Grade Readers

• Joey Pigza series by Jack Gantos
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
• The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
• Riding Freedom by Pam Munoz Ryan
• Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Picture Books to Help Kids Infer

• The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli
• The Wednesday Surprise by Eve Bunting
• Charlie Anderson by Barbara Ambercrombie
• The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch
• Elephant and Piggy books by Mo Willems
• Hurricane by David Weisner
• Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
• Tight Times by Barbara Shook Hazen

Books to Help Kids Visualize

• The Eyes of Gray Wolf by Jonathan London
• Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman
• A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood
• Atlantic by G. Brian Karas
• In November by Cynthia Rylant
• Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher
• Hurricane! by Jonathan London
• The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Patricia Harrington
• Saturdays and Teacakes by Lester Laminack
• The Five-Dog Night by Eileen Christelow
• Down the Road by Alice Schertle
• Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill
• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
• I'm in Charge of Celebrations by Byrd Baylor

Books That Give Kids Something to Think and Talk About

• The Goat Lady by Jane Bregoli
• Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne
• Martina the Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Agra Deedy
• The Yellow Star by Carmen Agra Deedy
• 14 Cow for America by Carmen Agra Deedy
• How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham
• Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting
• The Three Questions by Jon Muth

A look at the Reading Workshop in action- 5th Grade