Teachers thrive on rituals. Beginning of the year rituals. End of the year rituals. Daily and weekly rituals. When I first learned about how a group of teachers were creating a yearly ritual with their classroom libraries, I was intrigued. The idea is so simple, yet so profound and rewarding. I asked two of these teachers, Jenn Johnson and Brooke Klevenz, to share this great idea with you. Here is how they explain it in their own words:
Classroom libraries. If you’re like us, these two words will immediately remind you of hours spent, crisscross applesauce on your classroom floor, leveling books, labeling bins, and organizing them in a way which is both easily accessible and aesthetically pleasing to you and your students. If you’re like us, the same two words will also bring up a very important question: Now that the books are leveled and organized, who will read them?
Like many teachers, we have experimented with many ways of introducing independent reading levels to our second grade classes. We toyed with “educated guesses” based off of the previous year’s spring benchmarking and tried to factor in summer slide while looking at documented reading patterns and growth for each individual student. Neither method proved to be a success. After attempts and failures, for the past few years, we finally found a system that works and cannot wait to share it with you!
After hearing of this simple and fun idea at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, we began having “Library Reveals” in our second grade classrooms. For the first few weeks of school, students will anxiously await a big reveal of leveled books as they learn the expectations and rules of Reading Workshop. During this time, the leveled library will be hidden (under bulletin board paper or a dollar store table cloth!) and talked up to encourage excitement. While waiting for the leveled library to open, students will work on building independent reading stamina within genre or series bins (of appropriate levels) chosen by the teacher. They will also practice mini-lesson skills from the first few indicators of the year.
Yes, this is an exciting time for both students and teachers! Not only is it a great tool for managing behavior during workshop—we found that our kids will go the extra mile to prove they are ready for leveled books—but it gives teachers a few weeks to get to know and thoroughly assess each child as a reader. During these weeks we began to confer, work on strategy groups (focusing on workshop procedures), and benchmark our students. Unlike our past guesses, this provided accurate data to begin guided reading instruction, individual book choices, and whole class discussions.
So how does the reveal work? It’s quite simple! You only need to follow a few key steps.
1. As stated, it is most important to continue leveling and organizing your books before September. Although you have a few extra weeks to prepare—and no one really knows what’s under the bulletin board paper—the beginning of the school year is quite hectic. You will regret putting it off. *Don’t forget that the most excitement stems from the fact that the library is covered during this whole process.
2. You will now need to develop “browsing bins,” which the students will read from prior to the big reveal. These bins can be comprised of genre books, high interest books, series books, or science/social studies topics (past Weekly Reader magazines work wonders!).
3. Prepare the first few weeks of Reading Workshop lessons based on expectations and indicators provided by the district.
4. Pump the students up about reading! Teach your heart out and get to know your students as readers by conferring, holding strategy groups, and benchmarking.
5. When you feel as though you have all the data you need, and your students are ready to begin book shopping, plan a 15—30 minute reveal.
6. Celebrate reading with your students at the Library Reveal!
After tearing off the bulletin board paper with our classes, we found the following activities to be helpful and engaging while students take turns book shopping:
We look forward to reading any comments or stories of success.
Happy Reading!
Jenn & Brooke
Classroom libraries. If you’re like us, these two words will immediately remind you of hours spent, crisscross applesauce on your classroom floor, leveling books, labeling bins, and organizing them in a way which is both easily accessible and aesthetically pleasing to you and your students. If you’re like us, the same two words will also bring up a very important question: Now that the books are leveled and organized, who will read them?
Like many teachers, we have experimented with many ways of introducing independent reading levels to our second grade classes. We toyed with “educated guesses” based off of the previous year’s spring benchmarking and tried to factor in summer slide while looking at documented reading patterns and growth for each individual student. Neither method proved to be a success. After attempts and failures, for the past few years, we finally found a system that works and cannot wait to share it with you!
After hearing of this simple and fun idea at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, we began having “Library Reveals” in our second grade classrooms. For the first few weeks of school, students will anxiously await a big reveal of leveled books as they learn the expectations and rules of Reading Workshop. During this time, the leveled library will be hidden (under bulletin board paper or a dollar store table cloth!) and talked up to encourage excitement. While waiting for the leveled library to open, students will work on building independent reading stamina within genre or series bins (of appropriate levels) chosen by the teacher. They will also practice mini-lesson skills from the first few indicators of the year.
Yes, this is an exciting time for both students and teachers! Not only is it a great tool for managing behavior during workshop—we found that our kids will go the extra mile to prove they are ready for leveled books—but it gives teachers a few weeks to get to know and thoroughly assess each child as a reader. During these weeks we began to confer, work on strategy groups (focusing on workshop procedures), and benchmark our students. Unlike our past guesses, this provided accurate data to begin guided reading instruction, individual book choices, and whole class discussions.
So how does the reveal work? It’s quite simple! You only need to follow a few key steps.
1. As stated, it is most important to continue leveling and organizing your books before September. Although you have a few extra weeks to prepare—and no one really knows what’s under the bulletin board paper—the beginning of the school year is quite hectic. You will regret putting it off. *Don’t forget that the most excitement stems from the fact that the library is covered during this whole process.
2. You will now need to develop “browsing bins,” which the students will read from prior to the big reveal. These bins can be comprised of genre books, high interest books, series books, or science/social studies topics (past Weekly Reader magazines work wonders!).
3. Prepare the first few weeks of Reading Workshop lessons based on expectations and indicators provided by the district.
4. Pump the students up about reading! Teach your heart out and get to know your students as readers by conferring, holding strategy groups, and benchmarking.
5. When you feel as though you have all the data you need, and your students are ready to begin book shopping, plan a 15—30 minute reveal.
6. Celebrate reading with your students at the Library Reveal!
After tearing off the bulletin board paper with our classes, we found the following activities to be helpful and engaging while students take turns book shopping:
- * Design a Reading Toolkit
- o Pick a Post-it pack
- o Pick your quick jot pen
- o Design a bookmark (or two!)
- * Snack station (healthy and allergen free, of course)
- * Partner Reading station
- * Book pouch and library card pick up (We tend to design library cards for each student, with their independent levels indicated.)
We look forward to reading any comments or stories of success.
Happy Reading!
Jenn & Brooke