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Monday, July 23, 2018

Your Classroom Library

Many teachers spend a good chunk of their summers reading. I'm in communication with a lot of PreK-12 teachers who are catching up on their own pleasure reading while relaxing and rejuvenating. Many others are reading professional books on teaching as they plan for the school year ahead.

And some of my best conversations in the summer are with teachers who are reading children's literature, middle grade literature, or young adult literature to familiarize themselves with great titles and be able to make recommendations to students once school is back in session.

How can you get great books for youth into the hands of your students? And why should you? Read on!

"Who Doesn't Read Books in America?" (2018) by Andrew Perrin -- From the Pew Research Center come these sobering data about the "demographic traits that characterize non-book readers" in the United States of America.

"How to Get Your Mind to Read" (2017) by Daniel Willingham -- The article starts with, "Americans are not good readers." Why not? And what can parents and schools do about it? Dr. Willingham shares his insights and advice.

"Statement on Classroom Libraries" (2017) by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) -- Many teachers--particularly elementary teachers and secondary English language arts teachers--maintain classroom libraries: collections of books stored on the classroom shelves and available to students for small-group or independent reading. As opposed to school libraries, stocked and maintained by school library media specialists for use by the entire school, classroom libraries generally are curated by the classroom teachers in whose rooms they exist and accessed by students in the classroom. Read this statement by NCTE for clarity on what classroom libraries can and should offer to students.

"Building a Vibrant Classroom Library without Breaking the Bank" (2017) by Haley Moehlis -- If you are a teacher who has committed to providing a classroom library for your students, then check out this article's advice on how to get started . . . particularly if your school has no start-up funds to help you out.

"Build Your Stack" (2018) by NCTE -- This is not an article but an initiative. It is "focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries."Get advice from other teachers, authors, and literacy experts by attending Build Your Stack sessions at NCTE's annual convention and/or by following the hashtag "#BuildYourStack" on social media.

"What Is a Book Talk? Your Guide to Making Them Work in the Classroom" (2018) by Samantha Cleaver -- Once you have established a classroom library, how do you get students interested in books from your collection? Check out this advice on delivering a "book talk" to promote a book and help get it into readers' hands.

1 comment:

Kevin said...

Here's a good addition: https://pernillesripp.com/2018/07/23/how-to-easily-do-a-book-talk