Stevie Fields Blog 5: Routman Ch. 5

Routman really spoke to me in this chapter. My first year of teaching, I was lucky enough to walk into a classroom with a small but adequate classroom library.  It wasn’t anything special but I didn’t have to start from scratch.  Since it was already there, building it into something better was not top priority.  I was more focused on figuring out what in the world I was doing. At the beginning of my third year, I decided it was time.  Something had to be done.  So, I finally just went to the book store. I spent hours looking through books before I dropped a ton of cash and left with a large stack of books. Showing those books to my students the next day was one of the most fun experiences I have had as a teacher. They were so excited!  I don’t know why I was so surprised. There is not much that excites me as much as a bright, shiny new book. Why wouldn’t they feel the same?! It started a real conversation in my room.  Kids started telling me and their classmates which books they had read and why they thought everyone else should read them.  It gave us a chance to have real, spontaneous conversation about genre, characters, etc.. I did this a few times last semester and every time it was great. It gave me better insight into who my students were as readers.  I had a better understanding of what types of books they were interested in, so I was able to make better recommendations.  I’ve been able to start them on different book series so they are excited about finishing books and starting the next. All this to say, I feel like my independent reading time has been much more successful this year all because I started focusing on building my library and talking about the books with my students.  Although, I haven’t totally figured this out yet.  Most of this is coming out of my own pocket.  I know there are places I can get free or discounted books, but I haven’t found the time to figure that out and let’s be honest, that’s just not as much fun as going to the children’s section of Barnes and Noble. I also have not figured out the best way to organize my library or effectively check out books.  I had student’s write down what books they were checking out but that lasted about a day.  One thing I would like to try is finding a used device so that students could electronically check out their books.  As for now, I don’t think I’m getting all of my books back.  This year has shown me that a library is vital to a classroom.  And it’s sad that the texts that we spend the most money on for our classrooms are textbooks and leveled readers that few students have any interest in.