Welcome to OBBD anonymous! The first step to becoming an official member of Obsessive Book Buyers Disorder Anonymous is recognizing you have a problem. I'm a charter member, and can identify with you completely! Seriously thought, I've had to do the same thing when I moved from second grade to fourth grade, and when we reduced our grade by one classroom. Here's what I did: First I got rid of all books beyond repair, and those grocery store give-away type books (you know the kind that have cartoon characters as the theme, or Disney or Sesame Street characters.) These may interest kids, but the plot (lack of plot), language, sentence structure, etc. indicate that these are not good quality literature. I gave all these to our local womens shelter after allowing the kids first licks at them. (I've never regretted giving a book of any kind to a child.) Next I separated books by making 6 piles: + Books that I see kids reading all the time, you know, those that get passed around and reread, the ones kids fight to be first to read. + Books mentioned in professional education books that are used as part of lessons. (even though I have my own copies, I have some extra copies in my classroom library for kids to read. + Seasonal or thematic books + Series or author groups (all the Beverly Cleary together) + Books that need to go to another grade level (ie all extra copies of Junnie B. Jones go to second grade. I keep single copies of this for my students who struggle.) + Books rarely read.
I keep the books connected to professional books in a separate place until we get to those lessons. That way I know where they are when the kids ask me if they can read it and I don't have to risk messing up or losing my teaching copy. I also keep the thematic books out until we do the theme. Series and author groups go in their own baskets, and books that belong in a different grade go there. Whenever possible I give books I'm purging to the children. I never throw any books away unless they are damaged beyond repair. At the beginning of the year we do a lesson on genres of literature and the kids help me sort the books. We do this on the second day of school, it takes almost the whole day. I have them labeled with color dots from previous years, but I don't tell them about the code. They sort the books, deciding which group each book goes in. When we are done sorting I tell them the code and they negotiate whether to change a book's location, or not. We change the dots on any books necessary, and put them in labeled baskets acocording to genre. While this seems like a drawn out process, it really lets the kids know what's in the library,and gives them a sense of responsibility for keeping it maintained. I have a form that goes in their reading folder where they can fill in the titles of books they want to read. Most students in my class start out with a really good list based on their working on the library. Hope this helps. Joy/NC/4 _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
