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Saturday, April 13, 2013

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!

9 comments:

  1. I might come over to help if we can get some pizza! :) I leveled my library last year and I felt the same way. How many times can you google "guided reading level of ..."?!? I should have kept track! After I was done, I found that Fountas and Pinnell also has a book leveler for a small fee ($25). Not sure if you want to invest or not.
    I ♥ the Daily Five in my kindergarten classroom! It has made my kinders so independent!
    Sara
    Polka Dot Kinders

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    1. Thanks for the info on the FandP leveler...I have a question about it before I purchase...Does it include any phonics readers (like the little square series from Scholastic)? My phonics books are definitely the hardest to level!

      Thanks!
      Kelly

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  2. First, you just made my day!! I jumped down to comment and saw my blog in your sidebar. Thank you!

    I'm in Missouri, not Minnesota, but I wish we could work on this together! I get frustrated when a book isn't on Scholastic's wizard page, lol. Our phonics program has 32 readers that are not officially leveled; someday, I'll figure out where they fall in the lineup. According to a dear teacher friend, they hit level D by the 6th book. I'd love to have more identified books in levels B-G.

    Have a great weekend!
    ReadWriteSing

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    1. I totally know what you mean about the phonics books. I have a huge stack of phonics readers from Scholastic and Harcourt that I've set to the side because I don't know where they belong. Some of the older ones had been leveled by a previous teacher so I am trying to base the others off of her work...but I'm not sure how this person came up with the level! Ugh, so frustrating! Thanks for your comment!

      Kelly

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  4. Congrats to you for taking on that task! I think I should make it a goal for myself over summer. I have so many random books from the same publishers as you -some are Vocabulary readers or other specialty readers and I don't like how they don't have official levels. Then to top it off, my school district uses a different leveling system from Rigby that doesn't align with other levels. And then there are books that previous teachers have written some random number or letter.... and it's just a mess.

    I wish you luck!! Please post more about this as you go!

    Christy
    Crayons and Whimsy

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  5. we have an app that will help you level and label your books:

    http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=book+re&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4WZPH_enUS457US457&q=book+retriever+app&gs_l=hp..4.0l4j41l3.0.0.0.2765...........0.vbrPRa1a1c0&pbx=1

    you will need an ipdad/phone/pod

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  6. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-retriever/id512115889?mt=8

    sorry, wrong url

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  7. Hi Kelly! I am your newest blog follower and I am from MN too! I have to level my books again too! It's such a big job. The way I organize my books are always changing. Good luck!
    Sara
    First Grade Funtastic

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