Classroom library books11/2/2022 If they do not know where a book goes, they will leave it on the table for me to figure it out. When I introduce classroom jobs, I will train 2 Librarians to put the books back on the shelves. This helps to ensure that the books remain on the right shelves matching their label.Ĭommon Question: When students return books, how do you know they make it back on the right shelf? Truth is: I really don’t! In the beginning of the year, I return the books to our classroom library shelves myself. If the book is not a good fit, it goes back on the shelf right where your shelf marker is. If the book suits you, you take it (and put it in your book bin). In short, the shelf marker goes in place of the book you want a closer look at. #Classroom library books how to#Students were taught how to use shelf markers, in our media center. I printed them in black and white on card stock, allowed students to decorate them, then laminated them for durability. In an effort to recreate the feel of our media center and to reinforce the importance of respecting books, I made shelf markers ( an editable freebie) for each student. Plus, oftentimes nonfiction book are shaped differently than your average chapter book and are best kept in a bin of some sort. It’s easy to group nonfiction books by topic and they make sense in bins. If you’re not ready to take the plunge and ditch the bins completely, maybe try starting with the fiction side of your library. But classroom library organization without those pesky bins is a change that I am loving, and sometimes it’s the smallest change that makes a big difference in the lives of young readers. Don’t get me wrong, I used bins to organize my classroom for 5 years. They’re able to see the entire selection, not just the first few books displayed in the bin. Without the bins, my students are able to peruse the classroom library in the same way they would explore our media center or the public library. If you don’t have those Target pockets, you could laminate the label and attach it with Velcro so it’s easy to change out as needed. They’re also editable to fit the needs of your own library! I used the square adhesive pockets from Target to display the labels, and since they’re removable I’m able to adjust their placement as my library grows. The library labels have a brief description of each genre type, as well as labels for featured authors, fiction/nonfiction series, and topics for nonfiction books. This way students know where to look if they’re in the mood for humorous fiction, or where they could find the third book in the Ivy + Bean series. So, I used my own simplistic, kid-friendly library labels to organize my bookshelves. I wouldn’t expect my third graders to shop for books based on author’s last name without a search engine equipped with the Dewey Decimal System or something similar (and I’m DEFINITELY not implementing that in my classroom anytime soon). I teach third grade, and we still need help navigating a library. You might have been using bins to organize your library for decades… great! I’m here to share my logic and maybe inspire you to reconsider yours. Now, I know every classroom, every teacher, and every student is different (I make that disclaimer on every post I make), so bins might actually work well in your classroom. I loved that my students were feeding off of each other for book recommendations and eyeballing what others were reading, but there were some really good books being overlooked in those dusty bins! Organizing my classroom library without bins makes it easier for students to explore all of the books I have to offer without having to sift through an overlooked or unloved bin.Īnother reason I decided to de-bin ( that’s a word now) was actually due to necessity! I overheard a student say something along the lines of “I want to book shop but it’s hard to see what’s in the bins.” BINGO - BYE, BINS! I ditched the bins for a few reasons…įirst of all, I noticed many bins were gathering dust, while the same bins were continuously empty due to popularity. I posted about this on Instagram, you can see it here. After seeing how much my students loved browsing the shelves in our school’s media center, I quickly decided I wanted to embrace a “bin-free” library. Two years ago I decided to “ditch the bins” and seek a different form of classroom library organization. It’s safe to say that I am obsessed with having an organized library tailored to my students’ wants and needs. In my opinion, the library is the most important part of any classroom.
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