Leveling a Classroom Library

It's the weekend!! And what am I doing?  Going through a ton of books from my classroom library and leveling them....parrr-tayy!  Anyone local and want to come over to help? Only joking...I know it's a hot mess and only I can make sense of it! Notice my giant fountain pop--this is serious business!

Pictured above is just a tiny fraction of my classroom book collection.  If  I tell you something sad, please don't call Hoarders on me (I think my husband already did anyway).  Despite this mess all over my dining room table and living room, I went to 2 used book sales this morning!! Told you I have a sickness! 

Actually, I was just motivated and inspired by an instructional coach recently visiting my classroom from a neighboring district.  I had a chance to also observe her teaching a K-1 split Daily 5 literacy block and she was amazing.  It really made me want to jump into the Daily 5 more.  This year, I have been calling our literacy block "Daily 5" but I made it much more structured than the sisters suggest in their books, thinking that kindergartners really need the structure and more phonics work than they allow for.  After working with this coach, I have been trying to do whole group read to self and parnter reading twice a week. I think my class is definitely ready for it.  They have managed to independently read for 25-30 minutes at a time! It's been really fun to conference with individual kiddos (I usually do guided reading groups), and to hear them share about books and recommend them to friends when they're done reading!

Now I'm just trying to provide my students with more leveled books.  I previously had a leveled library but they were leveled in ranges (A-C, D-F, G-I, etc).  I have gone back through to properly level them and add more of my trade books to the library to beef it up a bit.  I'm also trying to match up books I have multiple copies of so my kiddos can partner read more often...what an ordeal!  I would love to hear from my fellow teacher bloggers about some time saving tips when it comes to the leveling process. I feel like I have been on Scholastic Book Wizard and Googling "guided reading level of...." for the past 42 years!!! 

PS-I have emailed the giveaway winners from my last post! Congrats Irene Leeby, Cherie Mae, and  Mel Chase!