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\u2019t even have libraries. Did you just shudder? Me too. Thank goodness for my school\u2019s 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\u2019m not certain what they\u2019re paying her, but there\u2019s no way it\u2019s enough.<\/span><\/p>\n Yet even before this year, I really didn\u2019t utilize my classroom library effectively because I hadn\u2019t 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 It was there, and filled with books, but many of the books were outdated or unopened as they had literally been sitting for years.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\u2019t get me mistaken, there\u2019s nothing wrong with an old book, but is it really something that a student is likely to pick up? It wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t select and replaced them with texts from the school book store that had been surplused; most of which were brand new novels.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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\u2019ve 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, \u201cabsolutely!\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019ll often pull from the shelf when I\u2019m giving a lesson: perhaps I\u2019ll examine a quotation from one, practice MLA citations with another, explore characterization in a third, or simply just suggest a good book to read.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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 \u2018First Chapter Fridays\u2019 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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s face it, you\u2019re not picking up that dust-covered book from the 90s and neither are they.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Follow and tweet @Bjeblack!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quickly, name five books from your classroom library. If you can\u2019t, maybe it\u2019s time to do away with those old, dusty books that were last picked up from before the dotcom boom. If you don\u2019t have a classroom library, here\u2019s why you should: The luxury of a classroom library was something I never had … Continue reading “Revamping the Classroom Library”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-face-2-face-sessions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/files\/2020\/01\/Screen-Shot-2020-01-30-at-21.43.28.png\")
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