Classroom Libraries: An Introduction

 September 8th is International Literacy Day. I'm ecstatic that my chapter of KDP is launching our Literacy Alive! project this month to celebrate literacy all throughout September. 

My goal for my blog is month is to dedicate at lest one blog post a week to just literacy (which for me, it might be harder to not post about it!)

One question I often get is how to set up a classroom library efficiently? This is a great question, and one of our PD workshops this month will be on just that! Our friend Stella from Scholastic will be the presenter, and she is amazing at working with teachers on how to build their libraries! If you're interested in learning more leave a comment or reach out to me on social media! I always love having conversations about our sessions, and extending the dialogue past here! 

For now, I'd like to share my top tips to get you excited to build your classroom library: 

- Start by thinking of your overall library? How do you picture your library to look? Draw out or think how your space looks and how to utilize the most of it. Will that include baskets or bins? Where will the shelves go? 

- Take inventory of what kind of books you have. You don't have to write down each book name (we're teachers and there is no time for that!) However you can group your books and take pictures, and believe me, your memory will start to know what books you have! 

-Write out how you plan on categorizing your books. There is no right or wrong way to organize, however I suggest to go by genre and then level within the genres. I even split my baskets, for example, I have my fiction books organized by genre i.e.- mysteries. Within that I know what level each of the books are and organize them in the basket so I can easily direct a student to a "just right" book. I also make sure multiple copies of books are grouped together in the basket. 

- Dots, dots dots! I put a dot on each book and write numbers on them to the corresponding basket. If there are multiple baskets with the same number, I also add a small mark on it to distinguish which basket. For example Basket #1 has three so 1, 1 with a start or dot, 1 with two stars or two dots. 

- It's ok to have better ideas along the way and change how your library is changed! It might be daunting and tedious, but you have to find the best way for you to know your library so your students will know as well and continue to be excited to read! 

Don't hesitate to reach out to other teachers, a literacy coach, Scholastic representatives, and professors for advice on classroom libraries. Experienced educators who specialize in reading and just love the pure joy of reading will be your best go-to for help. I also recommend if you're a new teacher/early educator to find a teacher in your school who is familiar with Scholastic Books to help you work on building your library, since there are often sales, rewards etc. through Scholastic. 

Final thoughts: take building your library one step at a time, keep your students needs, interests, and levels in mind, keep  the different genres as a factor for selecting books, keep reading out to others for assistance, helping students develop a love for reading is a team effort!