My Journey with a Leveled Library

Discussions on leveling books and libraries seems to be elevated lately. This topic was the discussion in several conferences this week so tweets were flying.  The National Council of Teachers of English  posted "What's Your Lexile Score?" today.

This trend has me thinking about my own journey with a leveled library.

I teach in an Accelerated Reading district, and most of the classroom libraries are leveled. When I first began teaching, my library was leveled too. That's just how it was done, and I didn't know any better.

After reading professional books, especially The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, I began to see the light and the damage I was doing to my students. I began to slowly add baskets of popular series and authors, as well as baskets of genres and nonfiction topics. Because I taught 4th grade, many of my students did not know how to choose a book other than from the leveled baskets. 

We had a learning curve which I continue to fight today. One the of the first discussions I have with my middle schoolers is what they notice about our classroom library. Many immediately notice that the books are not leveled, and I tell them they never will be. I teach them to choose books based on their preferences and how to determine if a book is appropriate for them. This is part of teaching the reader.

I worked with a teacher who had a different philosophy of teaching reading then I did, especially when it came to AR. We often disagreed, and he often quoted, "Programs don't teach readers, teachers do." 

He is absolutely correct, and I agree 100%. 

But what is a leveled library doing? Many libraries are organized by matching colored baskets, clearly labeled with AR levels.  This "program" is teaching our students how to choose books.  Not teachers. 

I will continue to fight against "programs teaching readers" and limiting their ability to choose books for themselves. I will continue to advocate for choice.

My journey with a leveled library has ended.

Life Preservers and the Island of Isolation

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for creating this space for me to share my corner of the world.

I am in my ninth year of teaching, and I am amazed how much education has changed in that short amount of time.  Some of that change has been brought on by education reform, and some of that change has been my own reformation, which has not always been easy and many times quite lonely.

My first year of teaching, I taught 5th grade reading.  I used a basal series and all that accompanied it.  I hated it, and so did my students.  The following year I moved to 4th and my quest for change began.

That summer I read The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  This book was my life

preserver, and I clung tightly to every word she wrote.  We are an Accelerated Reader district, and I knew better ways to motivate and create readers were out there; I just had to find them.  The Book Whisperer validated my beliefs while I tried to survive on that isolated island where we teachers sometimes inadvertently find ourselves.  This book was the catalyst in changing the way I taught reading.  

I began to:

• give kids more choice
• improve my classroom library with books kids wanted to read
• unlevel my classroom library
• decrease the use of worksheets
• increase the talking about books

It was slow, but it was a start.  Each year I implemented more and more of her ideas. My classroom was changing in ways I could not even imagine.  Now I read The Book Whisperer every summer to reaffirm my beliefs.

My eighth year of teaching I moved to middle school and felt like a first year teacher all over again.  I knew I could carry over many of the ideas and methods I used in my elementary classroom, but I also knew I needed to change some of the ways I approached independent reading.

My next life preserver was Book Love by Penny Kittle.  I read Book Love for the first time last summer and it completely changed how independent reading looks in my classroom this year.  Again, I held on tight and became brave enough to make some changes that I knew I needed to make.

I began to:

• include independent reading every day during my 48 minute periods
• establish reading rates and keep track of pages read
• have students keep track of books read using an online reading record
• have students rank the difficulty of their reading though reading ladders
• have students reflect on their reading
• conference with my 100+ students on a regular basis
• eliminate Accelerated Reader

I know that I am a much better teacher because of the influence of these two women and the books they have written.  The reading culture in my classroom is magical. And that is not an easy task to attain with middle school readers.  Turning students into readers has become my passion and my primary existence in the teaching world.  

Change is not easy, but when we have mentors like Donalyn and Penny who throw us life preservers, we musy grab them and not let go.  We must be brave enough to make the tough decisions.  And brave enough to swim off that island.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On! 6/7

Each Saturday  Ruth Ayres invites us to share and celebrate events, big or small, from our week. Looking for celebrations has certainly improved my outlook on my week. For that, I am certainly grateful to Ruth and to all of you who choose to celebrate with me.

This was not my original celebration post, but in light of some Twitter happenings this week, things changed!

Today I celebrate standing up for what you believe in, perseverance, and persistence. Or in other words, I celebrate Donalyn Miller.

Many of us are faced with challenges or attacks on what "belongs" to us (and I use that word very loosely here) or on our character.  This is not an easy situation to be in.  Many times this takes perseverance and persistence.

If you were on Twitter at all this week, you may have seen where a publishing company is using the hashtag #bookaday.  For those of you who "know" Donalyn, you know this hashtag is associated with a reading movement she started many years ago and was published in her book, Reading in the Wild.  You can read more about the Book-a-Day Challenge here on the The Nerdy Book Club.

I started tweeting at the end of 2013 and was looking forward to my first book-a-day challenge this summer.  Now, this anticipated experience has been tainted.  To quote a tweet, Donalyn says, "...because of you, an event for teachers and librarians is getting spammed with garbage."  This is so true.  I looked forward to reading and sharing books this summer with teachers, readers, and librarians and challenging myself to a book-a-day.  Now the hashtag leads me to junk I have to sift through.

I have never met Donalyn, but I do believe that she will prevail due to her persistence, her perseverance and the way she stands up for what she believes in.  I look forward to meeting her in a couple of week at All Write, but until then, I will continue to celebrate what she does and what she stands for.  And I will continue to celebrate and support #book-a-day.

According to another tweet, I believe she has a plan.  I hope you will join her in her quest for persistence, perseverance and standing up for what you believe in.  I know I will.

*UPDATE - Donalyn announced today that The Borough Press has changed their hashtag to #bookadayUK, therefore leaving the real #bookaday for teachers, readers, and librarians, which is where is should be.

This is a celebration of persistence and perseverance!