We are so excited to have classroom libraries as part of our district adoption. They allow for student choice, interest, engagement, and ability while serving as mirrors and windows into their own lives and beyond. Classroom libraries are a crucial component of reading workshop.
Let's look at the beliefs and commitments that support classroom libraries in the district Balanced Literacy Framework.
In addition, our new TEKS say: Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking --self-sustained reading. The student reads grade-appropriate texts independently. The student is expected to self-select text and read independently for a sustained period of time. The classroom libraries for each room have been curated by the authors of the Units of Study at Teachers College, Columbia University. Visit http://www.unitsofstudy.com/classroomlibraries/ for more information, including video explanations. FAQs: What is a reading level? In HPISD we use Fountas and Pinnell reading levels rather than Lexile, Accelerated Reader, or other systems. The F&P leveling is thought to be more about the content of the book, rather than an algorithm of words and sentences. Teachers should use the text complexity as a basis of the work of the level or bands of levels. For example, books within K, L, M levels are closely related in complexity. The characters, setting, plot, etc. are sort of "one way", as opposed to books in the next band N, O, P, Q. Do all of my books need to be labeled with a level? While we know we would never label a student as they grow and progress, it is nice to label books. This gives a general awareness to teachers and students, based on the complexity of the book. Your new Heinemann libraries came with stickers for levels. It’s nice to put these on the back cover. Do I need to report levels to parents? Parents do not necessarily need to know their child's text level. One, they should be progressing through levels quickly- perhaps at a rate faster than you can dialogue with parents. Two, it is more of a formative assessment. When talking to parents it is nice to show them the kinds of books their child should be reading, along with some characteristics of those texts. For example, "Sarah is reading books like Horrible Harry. They have three chapters that seem to be exclusive of one another. There is one main character who acts the same way and contains the same traits throughout. There are some secondary characters to keep track of, and they mostly act the same way as well and work to show more about the main character. There is a major conflict and resolution, but it is overt and resolved in an obvious way. There are examples of dialogue that move the plot. The main thing to know is this is a series. If Sarah reads lots of books in the series she'll start to connect how Harry acts and reacts within the plot. She can fly through many of the books and really focus on volume and stamina. This will help her move to more complex books soon." Another example might be, "I noticed Jackson really loves non-fiction books. He tends to gravitate toward books that give lots of detailed explanation when it comes to topics like space, technology, and other scientific facts. It's like he just gets lost in the book and immersed in all of the information. He's reading books where the format and structure can be varied, and don't always depend on the topic, but rather the author's craft moves. This is really sophisticated work for him to notice, beyond the content of the book. What's more, he can use these books that he loves as mentor texts for his own writing. He can try some of the craft moves out when he writes information non-fiction as well. This is something you could ask him at home. Not only what he notices, but what he's practiced lately and transferred to his writing." In both examples it was less appropriate to say Sarah is reading a level L and she can only read level L books until I've deemed she is ready for M, or Jackson is reading level S books in non-fiction. What does that mean to a parent? Instead, having some nice verbiage about the strategies needed for the types of books and the connection between reading and writing is more appropriate and helpful. What should my classroom library look like? A book store. Your favorite one. Organized where you can find what you want, but also keeps you lingering and searching, thumbing through old favorites and discovering new ones. Instead of bins with A, B, C levels, what about bins that categorize books by:
How do I do this and when will I have time?
A few years ago I remember TCRWP suggesting classroom libraries should be organized by level, now you're saying that isn't so? Yes! The beauty of the work done at TCRWP is that they are constantly revising their work through research. While they used to have more of an emphasis on reading levels, they have revised their thinking according to the above, based on impact. They still feel it is important for individual books to be leveled so that teachers have an understanding of the comprehension skills and strategies behind the book. It is an instructional tool for teachers. Should the campus library have levels? No. The campus library should be a place of wonder. The campus library also serves to take on the goals of the Balanced Literacy Framework:
I need more books for a particular unit and I was hoping my kids could check these out during library time. Can I have them check out one "fun" book and another class book? Instead, meet with your campus librarian. Tell them about the unit. What are the goals? What types of books do you already have? Where are the gaps? Then make a plan with the librarian to check these out as a class or team, rather than having individual students check out a specific book inside a unit. Be sure to tell your kids about this and that the books from the library were selected specifically for them!
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