Classroom Library Update

I've just finished reading Game Changer by Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp. Wow. The book is packed full of ways to make books real and alive for your students ... how to update your classroom library ... finding newly published books to add to your library ... to finding ways to get books into the hands of your students and their families.
So check out these updates in not only my own classroom library, but also in my thinking about children and books.

The book spoke about highlighting a new book and/or a book that you want to promote in your library. This is Mo Willems' newest release, Because. I wrote a quick recommendation and put it on the top shelf of one of my bookcases. It has been read by most of my students in the short time since it's release. I will change the book out sometime this week with some new books I picked up at the Virginia State Reading Assocation (VSRA) conference this weekend in Norfolk.
Another great way to let your parents and families know what books you recommend is to highlight a few in a letter you send home with your Scholastic Book Club order forms. Tore the order forms out and listed some of the most popular books, along with prices, and the code from Scholastic to get a free book if parents order $25+ online!
At the beginning of the school year I put out on my personal Facebook page about wanting to be able to send home books to each of my students throughout the year. In just a few hours, all of my 23 students had been sponsored to receive 10 books during our second grade year. Here's some of the books they have been able to take home for their personal libraries. I've searched for the $1 books throughout the year. Extra books were sent home in December, as I purchase a book for Christmas break to have at home. Extra books will be purchased for the end of the year for the same reason.

In Game Changer, page 15 discusses how book ownership is an important role for reading. We also have read and discussed as a faculty that we need to be willing to lose a book instead of losing a reader. I allow my students (and other children in our building) to borrow my books. I have an app on my iPhone to check books out so I can keep track of who has a book. Instead of stressing SO much about my books (and I still do some!), I make sure they have something at home to read. Parents have been great in helping return books to school.
Do you have a very popular book or series? One that the book bin is always empty? Well, that's Dog Man in my room! I finally figured out a system to lend and get these books back! I not only have them checked out in my phone, but also bought some of these library cards from Amazon and we keep track of who has the book this way, too! The students who want a Dog Man will look through the library cards and ask the student who has that book to read quicker! 
Virginia is adding Computer Science standards to our state standards for the next school year. Our ITRT has worked with others in the county to create a list of children's literature to pair with the standards. Between this list and the information from Julie at The Techie Teacher blog, I have worked to add a lot of techie books into my instruction. The picture below is just a small sampling of these books.
The Techie TeacherĂ‚®





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