Student-Centered Classroom Library Organization

Greetings, bloglings!

Today I tackled the monumental feat of organizing my classroom library!  I weeded out some older, sad looking books and added some shiny, new-ish ones that I've been admittedly hoarding in my closet lest little fingers crumple their crisp pages.  

I was not planning on it, but I have almost completely rearranged my classroom again!  It's not entirely finished; I have a few odds and ends to work on and I am anxiously awaiting my class list so I can label all of the things!  Luckily, one thing that I do not need to worry about is labeling the library's book bins and shelves.  

When school begins, I will open the library gradually until students have access to the entire library, and students will create the labels themselves.  My mom is a retired teacher, so over the years I have inherited hundreds of books from her.  This has greatly enriched our literacy environment, but it can be a challenge to keep the bins and shelves organized throughout the year.

A few years ago, I had some mini-librarians who loved to organize and re-organize whenever they noticed the books getting mixed up.     

Fountas and Pinnell recommend that classroom libraries have between 300-600 good books that vary in genre, length, and difficulty (be sure to visit that link to read the research behind this!).  It is incredibly important for students to be surrounded by a variety of books, and that the library area is as spacious, attractive, organized, comfortable, and prominent as possible.  The literacy benefits that this offers for students across all grade levels 

is fascinating.

Here is my freshly organized library:

It now surrounds our morning meeting space.  The library lived in the back of the classroom last year, but I wanted to put it in a more prominent and accessible area.  I am already looking forward to starting our lessons on genres and library organization when the students will make the bin and shelf labels!

For this activity, we introduce a few books from each shelf or book bin in a book tasting format.  In small groups, students determine the best genre/category for the collection, and they create the labels on index cards with clear text and illustrations to support each other in navigating the library throughout the year.  I laminate these cards, attach them to the bins, and voila!  We have a labeled library that the students take pride in.  They understand how and why libraries are organized as they are, and they are better able to take ownership of this integral part of our classroom.

Students also decorate their own "book bags" (using Crayola markers on blank, canvas tote bags) that they use throughout the year:  These are for holding longer chapter books that students will read for several days.  It keeps the classroom books separated from other books that belong to the school library or are from students' homes.

While it might be more efficient to label the library ourselves, or to keep it labeled and organized in the same way from year to year, it is definitely beneficial for students to engage in the organization process themselves.  Students need to learn how to interact with books on many levels, which includes taking care of them, as they explore their individual interests, develop a deeper understanding of literary genres, and access many texts in a new, shared space.

How do you organize your classroom library?