The Evolution of a Classroom Library–Part 2

I took pictures of my progress – but frankly it’s hard to see the progress.  Somehow when organizing I make a bigger mess as I go…

Today I continued to narrow down my book categories and sort accordingly.  As I mentioned in my previous Evolution post, I used a mixture of labels from different sets I’d found online to help inspire my categories.


Today while sorting I had a very difficult time following these categories.  I have about 1,000,000,000,000 books with animal characters, and 12 mysteries at my kids levels.  Realistic Fiction isn’t so hard to find, but some books just “don’t want to be labeled”…after wasting some time visiting with my future teammate in her classroom I decided to once again follow the sage advice of Candis at I Teach Dual Language.  (If you haven’t visited her blog – you should, she knows a lot and she shares her knowledge! Teachers are great like that!)


Candis commented on my last post (apparently sensing my mounting hysteria at the thought of organizing all my fiction by category) “One idea for your miscellaneous fictions books is to group them in baskets by the author's last name. You could have a basket for Authors A-E, F-L, etc. Just tell your kids that if it is fiction and is not from one of the class's favorite authors or from a theme basket, then they have to look at the author's last name.”


So, that’s what I’ve decided to do.  I have some fiction categories that just fit with my classroom library.  Here are some of my categories for fiction:

• Easy Readers – Realistic Fiction
• Easy Readers – Fiction
• Fiction – Bears
• Fiction – Farm Animals
• Fiction – Cats & Dogs
• Early Chapter Books
• Chapter Books Mysteries
• Chapter Books Mix

Then I began organizing by last name.  It was eye-opening.  Obviously I was familiar with most of the books, but I’ll be honest and say details aren’t my thing.  While sorting the books I discovered that many of my favorite authors have written books that I didn’t immediately recognize as theirs.  I can’t think of any examples right now – but it was cool!  So often I limit my vision of an author to one famous book or character – but the best ones are able to transcend the pigeon hole and write other original pieces.


I’m looking forward to:
1. My students learning how to use the classroom library  - by keeping my library as similar as possible to the average library my students will be able to transfer their knowledge to other libraries!


2. My students discovering new authors and old authors just like I was today!  By organizing my fiction books alphabetically my students will be forced to familiarize themselves with authors names and styles!


I’m currently working on creating some labels that fit my library’s needs.  There are so many book bin labels online already but as I’m sure you’ve experienced, they have a lot of the labels you need but not all of them, or you would like to combine two of them, or split one, etc.  So, I’m working on my own set.  I’ll share them when they’re done…and you can do with them what you will.  :)


*TIP*: If you do decide to create your own bins think before you start.  I just started merrily creating mine before thinking how I would display them.  I’ve seen the labels displayed lots of different ways…I know I want mine to be durable, visible, and versatile (lots of different bin styles and sizes).


After already starting and nearly finishing the labels it occurred to me to consider this detail.  AND, would you believe it I had to redo them all because I decided I wanted to use a plastic sleeve to display them and the sleeve is 3x5 and horizontal, whereas my labels were 4x5 and vertical.  So, learn from my mistake and think before you begin working.


I want to use these self-adhesive index card pockets to display my labels:

Have you used something similar?  Any recommendations?


Here are my favorite two labels so far (labels do not include blue and red writing or arrow).  One with my favorites that I want to share.  And another with my favorites that I do not want to share. 

Happy 4th of July!  Today is my husband’s birthday – it’s like he was meant to live in this country!!!!!!!!!  We’re off to celebrate!


Cheers,
Mrs. Castro Pin It