“The checklist gives them the guidelines to build a library from scratch or to enhance an existing one.” Classroom libraries with at least 10–20 books on a revolving basis are designed to maintain students’ interest and engagement. “We know that educators are strapped for time and money,” said Julianne Appleton, director of research and insight at First Book. When creating the checklist, First Book and Neuman sought to take the guesswork out of constructing a high-quality classroom library. “When given our checklist, they realized it wasn’t as good as they had thought it didn’t have cozy areas to read, multiple levels of books, or books of diversity,” she explained. Perhaps the biggest surprise that came out of First Book’s survey, according to Neuman, was how highly teachers had initially rated their libraries. First Book’s survey also called attention to a lack of robust collections, revealing that 54% of educators had 10 or fewer books in their respective classroom libraries. In addition, 47% of the respondents said it took more than six years to build their libraries, and 28% noted that it took at least 10 years to obtain enough books for a well-stocked library. Among the key takeaways: 96% of teachers personally funded some or all of their classroom libraries, spending an average of $346 on books and other literacy materials. To gain a better understanding of the current state of classroom literacy in the U.S., First Book surveyed more than 1,200 registered member educators working in Title I (or Title I-eligible) schools about students’ accessibility to books for independent reading. “People don’t realize what a classroom library should look like, and we wanted to support our teachers in designing one,” she said. Department of Education’s finding that 2.5 million children are enrolled in districts without school libraries. As further evidence, she pointed to the U.S. “Kids living in poverty come from book deserts,” said Neuman, professor of teaching and learning at New York University, who led this research study. The Literacy Rich Classroom Library Checklist, which helps assess a library’s functionality and usefulness, was released last month in conjunction with a nationwide educator survey, providing greater insight into the struggles and financial challenges pervading low-income school systems. In those cases, it just depends… sometimes I just pick one author and put them all together with that letter, or other times I may decide to put them all in a basket together.Focused on creating more book-filled classrooms across the country-particularly in underserved communities-Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit First Book, along with education researcher Susan Neuman, has launched a tool to assist educators with designing libraries that maximize their potential. CLASSROOM LIBRARY BOOKS SERIESI’ve slowly moved over to this over the years… I used to have series and authors with lots of books arranged in baskets too! I like having them spine out on the shelves now though! The only time I really come into problems with series is when they have different authors (like the 39 Clues series). CLASSROOM LIBRARY BOOKS HOW TOI don’t level the books in my classroom! We talk at the beginning of the year about how to find books that are a good fit, and then put in lots of practice! I also have one-on-one reading conferences with my students where we talk about what they are reading, so if I see that they are having trouble choosing books that are a good fit for them I can help them with that!Īs far as organizing my books, almost all the fiction books in my classroom library are now arranged in alphabetical order by authors last name, and my nonfiction books are arranged by topic. Students write on the card using a wet erase marker and then they can change it however often they would like throughout the year! A lot of times they change it whenever they finish a great book that they would like to share! The numbers correspond to their classroom numbers. Since I have a large class, I make the cards double-sided, so that each student has one side. Each student has a card they can write their recommendation on. You can learn more about how I originally created our book recommendation tree here, but essentially it is a place where students can recommend books to their classmates. That way when I get new books, I can put stickers on them before they get added to our bookshelves! Student Book RecommendationsĪnother part of my classroom library is our Book Recommendation Tree. I am always adding new books to our classroom library throughout the year, so I keep extra Classroom Library Rainbow Book Spine Labels and Colorful Classroom Library Labels with Individual Book Labels ready to go.
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