Thanks to teacher, Ashleigh Rose, for sharing her classroom library refresh with us! This is third post in her series. To see how and why she got started, be sure to read her first two posts, Part 1: Why My Kids “Couldn’t” Find Any Good Books in Our Classroom Library and Part 2: How to Renovate Your Classroom Library So Kids Can Find Books They Will Love. 

On Monday, it was time to share our process with the rest of the classes. For this to work for everyone, everyone needed to know about it. I also hoped this would be a living and breathing library that other students would continue to improve.

1. Students explained our library revitalization process to their peers.

Students who volunteered to reshape the library briefly explained the process to whichever homeroom they were in. In hindsight, I wish my students had taken pictures to explain the process to their peers—could be a cool student opportunity!

The students in the class then discussed a few questions we had for them, like:

  • Which bins sounded most interesting to them?
  • Which bins might be good for them to try to push themselves to read outside of their usual book selections?

2. We book talked new titles and chose where to place them as a class, not just on that day, but moving forward.

In class that day, we book talked a few books and collectively decided where it sounded like that book should best fit in the library. I told students that if most of us didn’t have knowledge of a book we could place it in the bin that seemed most appropriate, but down the line we could always argue for a location swap if it turned out the heart of the book aligned better with a different bin.

Moving forward, daily book talks ended only when we’d briefly discussed where this book should end up in the library. Sometimes the student book talker had a preset notion about a bin home and they explained a little about why. On the other hand, sometimes I book talked a book and let kids talk through where they most thought it should end up.

3. I put up our brainstorming poster by the door in the class so kids could add more bin suggestions.

For kids who were unable to help reshape the library that Saturday, I left a door open for them to be involved and continue to improve our library. I made it very clear that this was an experiment with our library that could constantly evolve with their input. I put up our brainstorming poster by the door so that kids could, as inspiration struck, add other mood/theme categories that were lacking from our classroom library. Several students recognized gaps in their library as the next month or two went on and added ideas that we could add to our list. (For example, there was a great outcry for books that were just all romance, all the time. That became our “Heart Eyes Emoji” bin.)

4. I modeled using the classroom library as a resource any time a kid asked for a book recommendation.

Out of habit and sometimes necessity, some students still came up and asked for a book recommendation for independent reading. I modeled asking them questions I hoped they could begin to ask themselves when they went to the library:

We would then locate one or a few bins that seemed to align with their interests and together we would quickly create a preview stack they could peruse. Fewer and fewer students came to me for recommendations as they realized that they didn’t really need me as the middle-man to do that work in the book selection process. You know what they say: give a sixth grader a book and they read for a day, teach a sixth grader to use their resources to book select independently…

Thanks for reading! My next post, The Results: What Happened After We Re-Claimed Our Classroom Library, reflects on the positive results of this massive shift in our classroom library.

About the Author:

Ashleigh has been teaching middle school literacy in Washington, DC for the last eight years. She currently teaches 7th and 8th grade Writing in Southeast DC and leads her school’s Project LIT chapter. She is lifelong learner and book nerd who is always trying to up her educator game. Ashleigh is a fierce advocate for giving kids voice, choice, and access to books that are both culturally affirming and representative as well as books and learning experiences that create a culture of curiosity and disruption of the status quo. You can most often find her nerding out on Twitter (@betweenmargins) and from time to time on Instagram (@betweenmargins).