Reorganizing the Literacy Library

A project that Julie, Trina and I have taken on this summer is to reorganize the Literacy Library on our campus. This is the library that the teachers use to pull books for their guided reading groups.  It has become an absolute disaster zone. For someone who teaches reading every day, it became a huge frustration to try to find appropriate books and keep everything organized.

We have started the process by going section by section to make sure all the same titles are together and in sets for teachers to pull. Then we are using online resources to update the levels on the books. In previous years our campus used Reading Recovery as part of their reading interventions. However, that program is no longer used on our campus. We now determine student reading levels through DRA2 and teach through guided reading based on the DRA2 data.

This means that the books are currently still labeled with Reading Recovery levels. I didn't realize how off these levels can be from DRA2. So book by book we are checking the levels through publishers databases and other leveled library inventories that districts have posted online. Once this process is done we will also create an inventory of our library so that we can purchase new books based on the needs of the library.

We've been working on this for a few days now, but it doesn't feel like we've made a whole lot of progress (even though we have done a LOT!) This is definitely a time consuming process and we want it done the most effective way that will help us through the year.

One of my wonderful co-workers, Tracy, also thought of a new checkout system. We are going to put library pockets with labels on each of the boxes showing the DRA2 level, Guided Reading Level, AR level and number of copies of each title that is in the box. There will also be an index card for each title with the same information inside the library pocket.

When teachers pull the books for reading groups, they will pull the index card for that set and place it in a filing box by the door under their name. When they return the books, they will pull the index card out of the filing box then re-file the books and index cards, ensuring that they have the same number of copies as needed before returning the books. We're hoping that this method will help the library stay organized for a longer period of time.

I will continue to post on our progress of this summer project!