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Quickly, name five books from your classroom library. If you can’t, maybe it’s time to do away with those old, dusty books that were last picked up from before the dotcom boom. If you don’t have a classroom library, here’s why you should:
The luxury of a classroom library was something I never had at the first two schools where I worked. Come to think of it, those school didn’t even have libraries. Did you just shudder? Me too. Thank goodness for my school’s library and for the wonderful librarian who works there. Every year, I badger her to give a book talk to my students for their independent study unit. And every year she cordially obliges, gives a fantastic performance, and leaves me with more personal reading material than my students. I’m not certain what they’re paying her, but there’s no way it’s enough.
Yet even before this year, I really didn’t utilize my classroom library effectively because I hadn’t seen the value in doing so. It was there, and filled with books, but many of the books were outdated or unopened as they had literally been sitting for years. Some were actually nearing 40 years old. Don’t get me mistaken, there’s nothing wrong with an old book, but is it really something that a student is likely to pick up? It wasn’t until I read about the value of classroom libraries that had me rethink my own bookshelves. After considering the benefits, I immediately revamped my classroom library. I took out many of the older books which had collected dust or which I assumed the students wouldn’t select and replaced them with texts from the school book store that had been surplused; most of which were brand new novels.
At the start of the year, I made a point of making the library known. Too often, students see books on a shelf and assume that those books aren’t for them to touch. This year, however, I encouraged students to, at their leisure, select a book from the classroom library and read in their own time. I’ve had surprised by how many students ask about the books or even request to borrow a text from the shelf, to which I always respond, “absolutely!”.
These libraries invite students into the world of literature at their own pace. They are free to explore covers, consider titles, pull from the shelf, read the first few pages, and put the text back or take it home as it pleases them. This is also a good way to expose them to literature that they might not have otherwise considered. Further, I’ll often pull from the shelf when I’m giving a lesson: perhaps I’ll examine a quotation from one, practice MLA citations with another, explore characterization in a third, or simply just suggest a good book to read.
Further, at the start of every class, I provide students with time to read. If a student has forgotten their book for the class, I direct them to the classroom library. In this instance, I don’t punish a student for not having their book. Rather, I let the classroom library expose them to a greater variety of literature, which is ultimately more likely to get them reading. One of my colleagues even practices ‘First Chapter Fridays’ at times, wherein she has students read the first chapter of a new book and then lets students decide to take that text out or not.
Ideas such as this are possible with a classroom library, but only if that library has current texts that are relevant and inviting to students. Revamping the bookshelves in our classrooms opens us up to these possibilities. After all, let’s face it, you’re not picking up that dust-covered book from the 90s and neither are they.
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