Do you have a book room or literacy lab in your school where you can get guided reading books, big books, etc.? What do you like/dislike about this room? Does your school have a system for checking out books? Do you send those books home with students? Who keeps the room organized? I just want to hear how other schools operate.
We have a book room. I never used the books, but we also store a phonics intervention program we all use there. Each little kit has one week's worth of lessons in it and it's broken down by whatever specific phonics skill you're on.
Two years ago we had an online google doc that we were supposed to fill out when we took one of the kits. I posted it on it religiously, but of course there was a wide spectrum of how much people used it.
This year they didn't do anything. Over the years, some people have been horrible with the kits. I'll pull one and there are materials/passages missing, everything jumbled up and out of order, etc. I think it's hard because you don't want to treat teachers like children and have them "check in" the kit with someone who verifies everything is there and in order, but what else can you do if people refuse to do that on their own?
They're talking about doing something like that next year. Generally, our intervention teachers and instructional coach worry about organizing the book room, so I'm guessing this would fall to them. I was fortunate in that I was working in an after school tutoring program that used the same materials, but we had our own complete set to pull from. Since only one other teacher was using the tutoring materials, I often pulled my kits for during the school day from there so I didn't have to mess with the book room.
Thanks for the reply. I find it interesting when teachers do not organize or return all materials. I mean I understand occasionally misplacing something, but geez!
At my school, many teachers will not check out books because they don't want things checked out in their name.
We had one years ago. Originally I was in charge of all the leveled books. It was a nightmare. Do you take all 5 copies of a book when you only need one? How long can we keep,them? Teachers forgot to return them, there was no official check out system that worked, etc. etc.
When we finally went full bore to Readers Workershop, we divided the books up between all,the teachers to supplement their classroom libraries. Because of that, our school did really well with guided reading and readers workshop.
In August, my school is moving to a new building. The book room will be right off the library.
The plan is to bar code all the book room materials and scan the bar codes into the library system. Then teachers will check out book room materials in the library. If the library aide is not available to do this, every teacher knows how to use the check-out system and can do it himself/herself.
We have an "official" book room where all the guided reading sets are kept. They are in bags with a lesson card. The bags are organized in tubs by guided reading level. The teachers check out the whole bag (5 copies) and return them when they are done.
We also have an unofficial book room with all kinds of resources: sets of books (mostly older books from when we used to do whole class reading of the same book), educational games, big books, intervention materials, readers theaters, etc. Actually an amazing amount of resources. Unfortunately, teachers rarely step foot in the room and no one is officially responsible for it. I spend several days a couple summer's ago organizing it. The teachers can just take what they need and return it when done. That room is on the honor system.
Yes, we used to have an entire classroom dedicated to our literacy books, but our school is full, so we moved our "literacy lab" into a sectioned off portion of the library. Teachers are supposed to put their own books back, but we do have 3-4 6th graders that spend some time in the literacy lab each morning putting books away. The 6th graders are trained by the librarian, so they know how to put them away correctly.
The books are used in the classroom for guided reading and are also sent home with students. Parents sign a form at the beginning of the year that will be charged for any books that do not return. Students all have book bags that their guided reading books get placed in.
We have a book room organized by reading level. It is a mess. The books are old and falling apart and I swear I was the only teacher using it this year. No one values it as a resource. No check out system and not a lot of variety in materials. I was actually thinking of looking for used books and creating my own sets this summer.
We had a book room with materials barcoded. As the reading specialist I was responsible for checking books out to teachers. When my district eliminated reading specialists all the books were split up into the classrooms. It didn’t take long for them to disappear because no one was in charge to check for damages or see if they were returned.
Ours is a mess. There are lots of great resources in there but also a lot of junk. Teachers sneak in and stash stuff they no longer need but can't throw away...books from outdated reading series, old workbooks. The cabinets are stuffed to the brim!!
We have a book room. It includes class sets and small group sets of books at a range of levels.
As the reading specialist, I'm responsible for those materials. There is not currently any kind of organization to them, they aren't leveled, and a lot of the titles are ridiculously old. I'm newer to the position and am slowly surplussing the old titles that no one would want to use and replacing them with new titles or text levels that teachers request.
Right now, the check out system is old school - teachers are supposed to sign books out on a clipboard that hangs in the closet/room. Sometimes they don't. Some sets are missing because teachers hold on to them instead of returning them. Since there isn't a better system right now, I ask for the books back, but I plan to have my paras inventory the books at the end of this school year and am thinking about doing something electronic over the summer to help track who is borrowing the books.
Those books are not supposed to go home because they are school property (we also don't send home textbooks).
Also in the book room: all of the books left over each year after our summer reading program and donated books that I use for book giveaways during parent teacher conferences.
I imagine what teachers would say they dislike about it is that most don't know it's even there and available to them, or what is in it. But most also don't take the initiative to look in there. The room/closet is labeled as the bookroom and I do tell teachers about it every year. I think what teachers like is that typically if they request a title, I'm able to get the books they want in the quantity they need.
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05-31-2019, 06:37 PM
