“Simply put, children read a great deal more when they have easy access to books, and well-designed, organized, ample classroom libraries provide the easiest access for students” (Routman, 2003, p. 64).
In my first grade classroom, my library is the first thing we see as we walk in each morning. I have spent countless hours purchasing, leveling, organizing, and labeling books. While our library was welcoming, organized, and well stocked, the problem I was encountering was that my students did not understand my ideas about organizing our books. I was spending countless instructional minutes teaching students how to navigate my library. While students were able to choose their books and were happy to read, I found they were mostly reading books with which they were familiar and books I had read aloud. Other students were tired of the books they had been reading, but did not know how to easily select books that interested them. While the majority of my class was reading happily each day, my little friends who needed to progress the most seemed to be the ones struggling to find books that excited them. Krashen (2004) states that voluntary reading is “the only way” for our young readers to develop mature reading skills (p. 57). He also asserts that when books are made available, kids read more (Krashen, 2004). One “very positive reading experience” or “home run” can lead a child to become a reader (Krashen, 2004, p. 84). I knew I had to make the books in my classroom more available to my struggling readers so that they could find the books that would speak to them and that may become their home runs. These are the factors that led me to turn over control of my library to my six year olds. The following steps detail how to manage this process.
Day 1:
Students fill out a categories and favorite authors questionnaire. Compile the most common answers onto an anchor chart for review as a class.
Day 2:
Review the agreed upon categories as a class, reminding students that we might find we do not need all of these categories or we may find we need to add more categories for books we did not think about. Seat students in groups of 3-4 and place a stack of books in front of each child asking them to decide the category for each book. Circulate throughout the room, facilitating discussion when necessary with questions such as those suggested by Jones (2006): “How many books will be in this category? Is this fiction or nonfiction? How will this help us when we go to pick a book?” (p. 580). When students have worked for 10-15 minutes, ask groups to share what books were placed into each category. Place these books into tubs with temporary sticky note labels onto them. Ask, “Are there any books that did not have a category? Where should these books go?” Repeat this process until time or focus run short and place uncategorized books into a box for the next day.
Day 3:
Continue with the steps from day 2. This process may take additional days depending on the age of students and the size of your classroom collection. Review finalized categories with students. Ask, “Do we need to make any changes before creating permanent labels?”
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A Student Organized Classroom Library
Brandi Farris