Enhancing Classroom Literacy Through Book Organization

Organization has never been one of my strengths. I appreciate a well-organized classroom, and parts of mine are, but overall, it’s an area that I work on. In an effort to be kind to myself, I’m focusing on my teaching goals and ways to make them happen.

For years, I’ve had a bookcase or two that I change monthly with both fiction and non-fiction books. These books are always available to the students. I have chosen books that I enjoy reading and that fit within the teaching that I do each day. I read these books as part of morning meeting and during any other carpet time during the day. My goal is to read a minimum of three each day.

One of my classroom jobs is librarian, and they often pick out the books that I read. I will ask them to pick out a book that we haven’t read before, and over the month I will read most of the books on the display bookshelf.

I love this system, but I had a whole collection of books that I didn’t read enough. This collection of books includes alphabet, rhyming, math, social responsibility, and fairy tales. These books have been organized in bins and stored at the meeting carpet, but I would only pick from them occasionally.

This is where my need to have organization that fits with me being a thoughtful teacher needs to mesh. These books have been available to me but not in a way that works for my brain. It needed to be even easier than it already was. I decided to create new bins that mixed the books. Rather than label the bins with months, I decided to number them. This takes the pressure off having them all read within a given month. I can move through the bins as quickly or slowly as works well with my students.

The bin I’ll be reading from will be directly beside me at my teacher chair, allowing me to quickly pick a book when I have a few minutes to fill or as part of my planned reading time.

I set up this system and tried it in June, and it worked quite well. At first, the books were categorized in the bin, but as I picked, they became mixed. Once read, I placed the books to the left side of the bin, making it easy for me to know what books have been read. It worked really well, and I’m excited to keep doing it in September.

To set the system up, I sorted the books into ten groups. As the books are loosely set up by months, I chose books I would tend to read in that month. I’ve made it so the simpler books are the early bins with more complex books in the later bins. My math books are organized developmentally, moving from a focus on five to ten.

I think the biggest impact will be the books on social responsibility. I should now be reading them throughout the year rather than just at the beginning or as needed. These discussions can happen consistently throughout the year and can be revisited as needed.