Classroom Library Redo! Part 2: Organizing, Leveling,

This is part two of a two post series.  

You can catch Part 1: Purging & Restocking Your Classroom Library by clicking HERE.

Sorry for the delay on this post.  I have been trying to do a Periscope tour of my library, which I wanted to embed in this post.  It hasn't quite worked out, so I'm just (finally!) going ahead.

Welcome to part two of our classroom library redo!  Now that we have our libraries purged of MUSTIES and have new(ish?) books ready to add, it's time to look at how your library is organized.
There are so many different thoughts on this.  I'm going to start with my library.  It is organized by both level and genre. Here are a few pictures to give you an overview. It begins with a small sign (that is really overexposed for some reason) which explains the baskets and a few other pics taken on different days.  Take a look!

All these blue, red, green, and yellow baskets are from the Dollar Tree many years ago  I am still surprised at how they have held up so well, especially since they are collapsible.  In the pic above, you can see a bunch folded up extras at the bottom of the cubbies. 

The red baskets are my leveled books, mixed fiction and nonfiction. If you are required to have a leveled library, I think it is important to also have a genre based section.  I want my kids to not feel tethered to a book basket because it is "their" level.  I want their reading selection to also be more interest based.  Knowing it is a book they actually are interested in will make them want to read it more than knowing it is their level.

The yellow baskets are all nonfiction.  Of course, I don't have every category, but there is a nice mix of topics I know are of interest to my students and projects we work on.

The blue and green baskets are all fiction.  Some baskets are labeled by genre, but there are a bunch of baskets labeled as Assorted Fiction which just have a mix of fiction books. I like having those assorted baskets because some children will never venture from what they know they like.  If they like graphic novels, they will always go to that basket.  If I tell them there are other graphic novels mixed in the assorted fiction baskets, they then end up browsing through an assortment of genres.  You never know what might catch their eye!

These large baskets below rest on the floor and hold picture books and larger, over-sized books that don't fit on the shelves.  These baskets are really large and hold a ton of books.

I found it really important to have some clear labels on every basket so my friends can easily find books and correctly return them.  On my library sign out sheet, there is a column to put in the basket label.  This way when they sign the book in, there's no guessing where they got it from and I don't end up with books randomly shoved in just any basket. I made all these labels and I love them, but oh my!  Totally did not think about having to cut out all those loops!  

I keep some favorite series books on a wooden shelf and new books are put on these display stands that I got at Dollar Tree.  These are perfect book stands! For just a buck, I was able to pick up a bunch of them. Dollar Tree tends to have them in stock all year, so you can still pick some up.

             

I use my Scholastic Points to get a few new books each month.  Then, I spotted this fantastic idea from an Instagram post by A Rocky Top Teacher.  When she gets new books, the kids that want the book get a ticket to write their name  on and put it in the cup.  Once all the tickets are in, you pick one so that person gets first dibs. The other kids can put it on their "To Read' list. I thought this was a genius idea because I see kids from seven different classes.  I had been trying to figure out how to distribute new books fairly and this works perfectly. It prevents the kids from my first period class always getting the new books. It works great with a single class too, especially if you have lots of kids that want to read the same book. So, that's what the cups are for. I use plastic cups and a dry erase marker to write the title so that I can wipe it off when done.

The big book shelf below is introduced after a couple of weeks of school.  It is a place for teacher and student recommended books.  The small teacher section holds some books I know my friends will love.  The larger section is for my friends.  If they have a book they love and want to recommend, they fill out a quick half sheet that basically tells why they recommend the book without giving away the ending.  It gets tucked in the book for browsers to read.  I do the same for the books I recommend. It's a great spot to take a friend that is having trouble selecting a book on their own. 

  Lets' quickly talk about building book excitement.  There is one, foolproof, never fail, way to do it.  It's not the only way, but it's the best one!  I'm talking about. . . 

BOOK TALKS! 

Never underestimate the power of a good book talk!

There are a few different kinds of book talks, but I'm referring to a general book talk by the teacher when you bring new books into your library.  When I have a stack of new books for the month, I gather my friends in a circle on the carpet and we briefly go through each one.  This is where the show begins.  My excitement level for these new books transfers to my friends, so I (whether I really am or not) am totally excited about each and every book as I talk about it. We discuss the cover, I read the back, tell my connections, my thoughts.  I may read a small section from the book or just a line.  In Rump: The True Story of Rumplestiltskin, the very fist line of the book is, " My mother named me after a cow's rear end." If that doesn't hook your students, nothing will! Mine dissolved into a fit of giggles and after that book talk almost all wanted to read it. Scholastic puts out this flyer on how to give a book talk.  It is mostly geared towards kids, but the tips also apply to a teacher given book talk. I tried to find more resources for teacher book talks, but there really isn't much out there. Honestly, just show your enthusiasm for the books, find a hook in the text, and they will want to read them.

Some other easy ways to build book excitement for your classroom library:

• Golden Tickets!  In random books, I hide golden tickets. They are tucked in well so that they don't fall out when browsing but are found while reading.  The ticket allows the reader to claim a small prize.  I started using the golden tickets from The Nifty Librarian's Tpt store.  It is a free download which is editable so you can change it to your name and how it works if you like. I've since created my own, but those are a good place to start.
• Wrap Books!  Some months, I will wrap the new books like presents and allow students to unwrap the book which is the one we do a book talk on.  For this, we do one a day with a quick book talk. Honestly, this takes no more than five minutes.  It's the unwrapping of the book that is the hook.  They can't wait to see what it is.I also sometimes pull books I already have that are good but just not circulating.
• Bulletin Boards!  In my class library, I do a monthly (if I don't forget to change it!) author spotlight and genre spotlight.  The book talk at the beginning of the month revolves around getting to know the author and his/her books.  I always try to find something interesting or quirky about the author that captures my friends' interests.  Then, when we do the genre spotlight, I can showcase books that some of my friends may have never thought about reading. Our spotlight this  month is on the author Andrew Clements and the realistic fiction genre.
  
• Read Aloud!  I think liking to be read to transcends every age.  I have clear memories of being in 5th grade and my teacher reading the book The Man in the Box to us every day after lunch. It is set during the Vietnam War and tells the story of a captured American soldier who is tortured and put in a box in the hot sun and how he is helped and eventually freed and brought to safety by a young Vietnamese boy who lives in the village. I remember the book being so boring at first.  Not exactly the reading material a 5th grade girl is likely to select.  However, my teacher made that book come alive and our class couldn't wait to get back from lunch to read that book. I remember venturing into the historical fiction genre for books afterwards, which is something I probably never would have done if not for that read aloud.
• What are you reading?  This year, I've made a commitment to read more of the books my friends are reading.  Mostly because I realized I had not been keeping up.  My friends were reading and wanting to talk about books I didn't know.  This year, I've been reading tons of books.  It has me excited about their books and enables me to have some great in-depth conversations about books with them.  It has also helped me be much better at fitting books to my readers.  If I can talk genuinely about a book with real knowledge of it, I can sell it!  It has also helped to improve my reading conferences.  While we don't have to have read the book we conference about, I have to say it does help.

These are just a few simple ways to build excitement in your library.  There's more, but this went on way longer than I intended!   If you are still reading, thank you! :-) I hope some of this has been even just a bit helpful.

Classroom Library Redo! Part 1: Purging and Restocking Your Classroom Library

 This is part one of a two post series.  

I have always loved having a big class library. It has really  helped me create readers out of my most reluctant students. But, over the years I realized that I had been lazy and sort of let my library go.  It  really hit home when I went to a workshop by Donalyn Miller and read her book Reading in the Wild. Holy Moly! If you read it, be prepared to look at your class library with new eyes and be compelled to improve things! It was this quote that really made me rethink my library:

  ". . . remember why we build classroom libraries 

in the first place: so our students will fall in love with reading and find the right book at the right time. We cannot offer our students meaningful              book access with damaged, outdated, 

or uninteresting materials." (p. 86)

Yes, a lot of my library was MUSTIE.  MUSTIE is Donalyn's acronym for the six factors librarians use when removing books from their collections.   Essentially, MUSTIE asks if your books are Misleading (contain information that is no longer accurate), Ugly (torn, ripped, yellowed, etc,), Superseded (having older copies of books that are often updated), Trivial (books that don't engage most of your readers), Irrelevant (outdated, no longer popular), or can be found Elsewhere.  I really suggest you read her book, especially chapter 2: Curating a Classroom Library, where Donalyn goes in to much more detail.  Using the MUSTIE criteria, I did a huge purge of books in June, at the end of last school year.  I ended up pulling about 275 books.   These are just some.

Once I had all the books pulled, I let my students take home as many as they wanted.  Honestly, I had kids coming from classes I don't even teach asking for books.  Anyone that asked for a book got at least one. I even had kids taking books home for siblings. I realized this when one of my toughest boys was holding on to a fairy tale story book. When I asked and he explained it was for his little sister, I wanted to give him a huge hug.  Of course, I couldn't because that would totally have messed with his tough guy image! It was so great to send kids home with books they wanted to read over summer vacation.

I then spent the summer restocking. Books are everywhere! And, you don't have to spend a fortune to restock. You can go to a thrift store.  Thy always have a children's book section.  I went to library book sales and got these goodies below. Books at my local library run from $0.25 to $2.00.  I would say most of the books I purchased were about $0.50 each.  When buying used books, just keep in mind that it should look fairly new and be relevant to your readers.  Don't purchase more MUSTIE books to replace the MUSTIE books you've purged!

I ordered way too many books (That's not all of them by far!) from Amazon using points instead of cash.  This is great for getting newer, popular, and more current books.

(By the way, The One and Only Ivan?  I cried from the middle of the book to the end!  One of the best children's books I've read in a while.)

Finally, the last thing I did to restock my library was to go to the Scholastic Warehouse Book Sale where they had great deals.  There were dollar tables, and they offered Build a Box where you could stuff as many books in a box as possible for $25.  Th warehouse by me is having its next big sale in December.  I suggest clicking the link and seeing if there is a warehouse near you.

There are still many other sources for stocking your classroom library inexpensively:  

• Ask parents!  You can send a flyer home with an upper grade class asking parents if they would like to donate any books their child may have outgrown. If there aren't younger siblings at home, you will probably have parents happy to donate when they know it is helping their child's school.
• Facebook:  Many communities have online garage sales where people will post items they want to sell. Also, just putting the call out there on your personal page that you are seeking donations for your classroom library will often bring forward people who have books to give but just didn't think about it.  Of course, this works best when all your FB friends aren't teachers!
• Ebay.  When searching for books, don't just look for one particular book.  I find I get more results when searching in the children's book category for "book lot." This way you get auctions for several books that are generally on the same level instead of individual titles. A couple of years ago I had a student that refused to read anything. Flat out refused to read.  Finally, I was able to interst him in the Bone graphic novels.  He liked the first one and said he would like to read another. Our school library didn't have it, so I was able to go on Ebay and purchase several books in the series for a fraction of what they would have cost anywhere else.  It was money I was happy to part with because my friend ended up reading all the books!
• Craigslist:  I haven't used this myself for books, but I do see them listed.
• Scholastic has an article on Ten Easy Ways to Get Books for Your Classroom Library.  It's an older article and some ideas I've suggested, but there are some others that might work for you.
• Finally, this post from The Nerdy Book Club has lots of great ideas!

So, heading back to prep my room at the end of August with boxes of books turned in to quite a job! My library is sorted by level and by genre. Most of my books are leveled, even if they are not in a leveled basket.  One of the easiest ways I've found to do this is to mark the book level on the bottom of the book. It is not seen by all and then the book can be in the leveled baskets or the genre baskets. I have to say though that I am not a believer that a child should be tethered to certain books because of levels.  My students are allowed pick books that interest them. We use the reading levels more for guided reading instruction.  But, for this to work, you really need to be tuned in to what your friends are reading and how it is going.

This is posting on Tuesday morning.  After school this Tuesday afternoon I am planning to do a Periscope tour of my finished classroom library, sometime between 4-5 PM EST if you want to watch.  Connection is always a little sketchy in my classroom, but hopefully it will work and I can do the tour. The second post in this series is the Classroom Library Redo Part 2: Organization and Excitement!  This post will show you finished pictures of my library, how it is organized, my circulation procedures, and some extra tips on helping your students make the most of the library. If the Periscope tour works out, I will embed it in the post which should be up in a day or two at the longest.

Hopefully, you found this first part helpful.  Check back for part 2!
As always, thanks for reading!

Quick Tip: Bind Your Professional Books!

Notice anything different about my Reading Strategies Book?

Yes, I had that book bound!  

This might be the best thing ever.  

I have to give credit to Jennie Motes Smith who posted about doing it to some of her books on the Notice and Note Facebook page.  I saw her post and literally got off my couch, grabbed my book, and went to Staples.  It was done in 20 minutes and for less than $4,  The twenty minutes was good because I was in such a rush to get there I actually left my wallet home and had to go back for it!

When you get the book bound, just hand it over. They will take off the binding, put in the spiral, and add a cover to the front and back.  I got the clear cover on both sides. This is great for increasing its durability and protecting it from the coffee drips and spills I always seem to have when I'm reading.

I think binding is the perfect addition to this book.  You can lay it flat much easier, and fold it over to view just one page as shown below.  I covered the page as I wasn't sure how much of the book content I could show.  I think being able to fold the book over like this makes it much easier to handle during a lesson.  It is easier to refer to while teaching if you need to.

Unfortunately, there was one down side.  This particular book is a little large for the largest spiral Staples has.  If you look at the picture below, you can see that the book curves around the binding a bit and isn't exactly even where the book opens.

Having said that, I don't see this being a real problem.  The book handles fine, and when you have it open flat or folded in half you don't even notice it.  This book is on the thicker side.  I looked at a lot of my other professional books and most would fit without any problems.  Staples also has spirals in smaller sizes for thinner books.

On another note, I had planned to do a review of this book, but I'm sort of on the fence.  There is already so much out there about it right now.  Let me know if you would like to see a review. I will say that I do highly recommend the book.

So, that's the quick tip.  Get your favorite PD books bound!

Abandoning Post-It Notes During Independent Reading

I have been a long time user of Post-It note annotations during reading.  In fact, I've written posts, like this one and this one, where I mention using them.  However, the nature of teaching is that we continue to learn, grow, reflect, and change our methods and instruction for the better.  That's sort of where I am now with Post-It note (which I usually refer to as sticky notes) annotations. I think we are parting ways when it comes to independent reading.

I have to be honest and share my teacher fail here.  I had done all the right things in implementing this.  We did lessons on what was worth writing a sticky note, the different types of things they could write a note about, etc. We practiced it in guided reading groups, I modeled it many, many times. However, it just didn't seem to stick (pardon the pun!) for many of my students. Oh, there were a handful that got it and did well, but many seemed to struggle with using them in a way that helped them as readers.

So, I tried to fix the problem. When I noticed the friends that would sticky note almost every page, we had one to one lessons reviewing their notes and learning why some were good while others were just filler.  We revisited the lesson on "sticky worthy" events. I had many frustrated days conferencing and reteaching with some friends that wouldn't write any sticky notes at all because, despite my exhaustive lessons, custom sticky notes with prompts, and the anchor charts hanging in the room, they would say they didn't know what to write.

I knew it was time to rethink this. How effective was having my students use sticky notes during independent reading?  Was it working?  In a word, no.  It wasn't working for enough of my students that I could say it was effective.  And, what really were my ultimate goals for my students?  I wanted my friends reading.  I wanted then to be immersed in a book they enjoyed.  I wanted them to have sustained reading time, to be excited about reading and talking about books with their friends.  What I had done by enforcing sticky notes was getting in the way of all of that.  My students are children reading 1-2 years below grade level.  Reading has been a struggle for them and not something they consider enjoyable. I was just making it more like work than the joy I know it could be for them.

Then, I thought about myself as a reader.  I read.  I read a lot!  And, I rarely stop to jot a note when I'm reading fiction.  Instead, I let myself be immersed in and carried away by the story.  I live the events with the characters and become invested in what they do.  I "feel" the book; laughing, crying, worrying, wondering, anticipating as the text pulls me in. This is what I want for my students. When reading nonfiction, I generally don't annotate unless I have a purpose of using the information in some way.  For my students, this would be if they were working on a research project or found some information so interesting they wanted to share it with a friend later. But, what would be my purpose in forcing them to write Post-It notes on a nonfiction book they were reading for enjoyment?

The last two months of school, I decided to give it a shot and abandon sticky notes.  Here's what I noticed immediately.  My friends spent more time reading.  Their enjoyment of reading increased. My most reluctant readers were no longer fake reading or complaining about having to read. They were talking more to each other about the books they were reading. They were spontaneously coming to me to talk about an interesting or funny part of their book. All those goals I had for my students were happening!

This September, I will not be using Post-It notes during independent reading.  That's not to say I won't be using them at all. Post-Its definitely have their place in the classroom.  We use them a lot during guided reading.  They are perfect for jotting down an answer, a great spot for a student to jot down something they want to share, something they notice, etc.  I will sometimes prewrite individual questions on them to differentiate for my students.  There are a million places where they work well.  I just no longer think independent reading is one of those places.

But, I do have to have something in place.  My district is all about accountability, so as much as I would like to set my friends free to go read and just enjoy their books, there needs to be more to it. Because I have my notes from student conferences, goal setting, and lesson observations, I knew I could keep this fairly short and simple.  Currently, I am thinking of having the kids do a single response when they finish a book.  I  plan on calling it Just One Thing! where students have a chance to share just one thing about the book they read.  It can be a book review, something in the book events they want to comment on, etc.  The point is they just have to say one thing about the book and it can be as detailed or as simple as they are capable of constructing at the time. This allows them to read without interruption or worry about writing Post-It notes.

Originally, I thought I would provide them with small, soft cove notebooks where they could write and I could respond.  But, then I realized this would be perfect for technology integration.  In the past, I've done a class blog where the kids responded to our read alouds.  It worked out so well. They commented on each others post and had real conversations about the books. I am leaning toward using a blog again for this.  A couple of suggestions from Instagram were to use Edmodo or My Big Campus. I am not super familiar with those sites, but I plan to check them out over the summer.

So, that's where things stand now.  I would love to know your thoughts.  What are you doing with independent reading?  Are you using sticky notes or have you found another way?  Any suggestions?

Happy Independence Day!

Why I Took A Year Off From Blogging

Can you believe it has been a 

(school) year since we've last said hello?  

To be honest, I have no idea where the time went.  My blog absence didn't begin as an intentional decision.  I was overwhelmed by work, family, and other responsibilities that made blogging something I just didn't have time for.  I kept meaning to do it, but as my daily to do lists got longer and longer, blogging kept getting moved down the list. When I look back at the last few posts I did write, you can sort of see it was coming.

At one point, I realized I hadn't blogged in a couple of months.  That was when I did make a conscious decision to take the school year off.  It was not an easy decision.  I like blogging.  I really, really like blogging!  I like sharing ideas, having a place to express myself, and the interaction with you all through comments. I share, but I also learn so much from you.  However, when blogging became something I no longer looked forward to, I knew it was time to take a break.

It had been, for me, a difficult couple of years at work with some changes that had me feeling somewhat uninspired.  I found myself with fewer and fewer ideas on what I wanted to blog about.  If I wasn't energized and excited about what I was doing, how could I possibly come here and share?  I knew that I needed to refocus and find a new way to look at things.  It was all about "reframing" the situation.  Happily, I can write that I am in a totally different mindset now. I want to write a post about reframing and recharging your teaching.  I think we all hit that slump at one time or another, and I was able to find some strategies that really helped turn things around.

So, do I regret taking the year off from blogging?  I can 100% say it was the best thing I could have done!  It really gave me a chance to recharge.  So, what did I do with all that time?  Lots!

I found time for all those school related things I would usually struggle to fit in. . .

I went to several out of district workshops that made my literacy loving heart sing!  I was able to listen and learn from Donalyn Miller, Harvey "Smokey" Daniels, Debbie Miller, Douglas Fisher, Kyleene Beers, and Bob Probst. Tell me that isn't an amazing year of PD! Being able to learn from these literacy leaders has recharged my teaching and definitely made me refine my methods.  It has also given me so many ideas for blog  posts.  There is so much I want to share with you from these workshops!

I finally got to read some of the books in the giant pile I've been meaning to get to.  Reading in the Wild by Donalyn Miller was a really good one, but I've been on a big Jennifer Serravallo kick.  I love her books. If you are a literacy teacher, she is a must read.  In particular, her latest book, The Reading Strategies Book, is one that should be on every reading teacher's desk. I'm planning to post reviews of the books I've read this past year.  Most were fantastic like the two below, but there were a couple of duds.

 

I worked on cleaning up and reorganizing my classroom.  This included taking the time to purge all those files I haven't opened in forever and reorganizing my closets and drawers that seemed to be filled with things I've sort of just thrown in there. I took a true tough love approach and got rid of anything I knew I haven't used and probably wouldn't.  One of the biggest projects I took on was reevaluating my classroom library.  I have a HUGE class library. After attending the Donalyn Miller workshop, I was inspired to make some big changes. I have a couple of blog posts planned about this with all the details and rational, but I can tell you I ended up purging 271 books and then completely reorganizing it all.  The pic below is from my Instagram that I posted as we were in progress. By the way, Instagram is without a doubt my favorite social media! I must be a visual learner :-)

There was also time to have a life outside of school. I found time to join a gym and workout.  I had time to spend with friends and family.  I read many (GASP!!) non-teaching related books. I went to movies, I slept, I cooked, I went to concerts, fairs, and festivals. I watched TV,  I had a life!  And, it wasn't that blogging took that much time.  I mean, it does take time.  If you blog, you know it can be time consuming.  But not blogging gave me nights  and weekends free to do more without the guilt of thinking I should be blogging.

The one area I had hoped to work on this past year was my presence on Teachers Pay Teachers. Yeah, that didn't happen.  I still have just one or two lonely, simple freebies hanging out on my TpT page.  I had lots of ideas and projects in mind, but never got around to it.  It is still a goal for me.  Being able to share products and ideas that work for me and I hope will help others is something I still really want to do.  I just have to realize this is going to be a slow moving goal.  I still have a lot to learn about creating products and how TpT works.  I have July and August to do some learning and creating, so I'm hoping to have at least a couple of things ready to go for September. But, I'm not
going to be pressuring myself to do it all.  It will happen as it happens.

One thing this year off did help me realize is just how much I missed blogging. Even though I'm glad I took the year off, I'm excited to get back to it.  Also, I have to give a huge thanks to those of you that continued to pop in during the year despite not seeing new content. To be honest, I was shocked anyone was still checking in on my little blog!

Moving forward, I have a better balance now with work, life, and blogging. I don't have a blogging schedule planned.  I just have things I want to share on occasion.  It might be twice a week, it might be once a week.  I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that I am  happy to be back to blogging!