Classroom Libraries and Student Involvement
The following is a comment I left on a post by Donalyn Miller for Nerdy Book Club. I will share more of my thinking later this week on the topic at readbyexample.substack.com.
Thank you for sharing your reading life and how you came to this point as an educator and advocate for lifelong reading. I want to respond to a few of your statements (in blue) with my own thinking, with the sole purpose of continuing the conversation for all.
“Where are readers in conversations about teaching reading?”
Readers have to be at the epicenter of our decisions about what is available to read in classrooms. Teachers and administrators have a lot of power in our roles. To include readers in these conversations about reading is essential for their success.
“If we are self-reflective educators, we must admit that despite our best intentions, we have not equitably supported all of the readers in our classrooms.”
I, too, was there. For several years, I wondered why my classroom library was not more readily utilized by my students. Once I learned that I needed to include my students in the organization of the classroom library, I saw an increase in the usage of my 5th and 6th graders. They owned the library as much as me. For better or worse, I moved to school administration not much longer after that, but I have continued to promote this approach of co-developing classroom libraries.
“How might our schools change if we looked through a young reader’s eyes for even one day? What might they teach us?”
Such a critical question! I think the answer varies based on your students every year. Every class is unique. That is why we advocate in our school for including students in the design, organization, and management of our classroom libraries. How can we truly know what our students need unless we include them in the decision-making process? I believe that involving students in developing classroom libraries is a mutual learning process.
To conclude, I recall the wise words from Diane Laufenberg:
What are we doing for students that they should be doing for themselves?