Using the Classroom Library to Teach Text Features
What can't you teach with this resource?
If I were teaching again, the classroom library would be the cornerstone of my literacy instruction.1
When I first started teaching, I treated it as just another resource: utilized when a student needed a book to read independently, as part of the environment. I’d make sure books were standing up, cover out on the carousel, just in case a student happened to walk by and it piqued their interest. More a centerpiece than a cornerstone.
After watching instruction from an administrator’s point of view for fourteen years, plus the research I have read2, I have become convinced that the classroom library is a key element for growing readers.
So when I get the chance to cover in the classroom and the teacher offers some latitude, I look first to see how instruction can be supported with in-class texts. A classroom library is that unique school resource that can belong to everyone. The teacher procures the texts, yes, but the students can have so much say in the process (assuming the teacher is comfortable with sharing the responsibility).
Covering a class recently, I was asked to teach text features. I wondered:
How could the classroom library support this learning experience?
What misconceptions did students have about text features that independent reading resources might help clear up?
Have students truly learned text features from previous years’ instruction, and how might the classroom library reveal their understanding?
In the rest of this article, I describe how we addressed these questions within an authentic context.
A Learning Intention and Guiding Questions
“As readers, we will explore how text features are used by authors to communicate their ideas.” I wrote this on the board as the 4th graders filed in from recess. I did not love the word “explore” as a learning intention verb, but it was better than the low-level “identify” or the vague “understand”. Beneath it, I posed a corresponding guiding question, a simple inquiry: “Why do authors use text features?”
“So…why do they?” I asked the class, pointing to the question. After a brief pause, one student spoke up. “To point us toward important information?”
I nodded. “I would agree. Did you know that almost all books have text features, not just informational texts?” This pause extended much longer. “Let me show you with a read aloud.”
I introduced Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz. It is a nonfiction narrative, tragically out of print3, about four dogs with different jobs on the author’s farm. One dog’s job, Lenore, is a mystery and is continuously referenced throughout the text. “What is Lenore’s job?” is bolded and in another color whenever it comes up.
“Why does the author repeat this question? How does he call your attention to it?” I asked during the story. “He wants you to keep reading,” observed one student. The class generally agreed. I finished the book, noting the emotional pay off at the end (Lenore’s job is to care for all the other dogs), and then reviewed a few of the text features in the book.
A Scavenger Hunt and an Assumption
“To guide your search…” I announced as I handed out a two-page packet. “I am handing out terms and definitions for almost any text feature you might encounter.” The packet came from a resource I had utilized in my previous school. The program was too scripted, but the information was helpful for defining what text features were and how to find them.
“You just heard me read aloud a book that had helpful text features, used with intent by the author. This was not your typical book often associated with this concept. Now we are going to stretch ourselves here and see if we can spot text features in any book in the classroom library while still considering why the author used them to support readers’ understanding.”
The purpose of the scavenger hunt was to help students see the connection between all talk about text features with the real reading they did in the classroom. The (false) assumption I made was they knew text features well enough that they could apply that knowledge to a new situation.
One pair informed me they found a book without a synopsis. “Really?” I wondered aloud. We examined the back cover of the chapter book. “What is this?” I asked them. One of them shrugged. “Let’s read it together, and you tell me if this is or is not a summary of the story.”
I was halfway through it when they cut me off, now identifying the synopsis. “If you want to get technical,” I admitted, “this probably is not the official synopsis. Sometimes they put it in the front by the copyright information. But it does do the trick, right? It gave us the necessary information to know if we want to read this book or not.” They nodded.
An Early Exit and a Small Win
The teacher came back as we were still exploring the classroom library. “Will you let me know what they share with you at the end?” I asked. The teacher agreed.
To be clear, the classroom library in this classroom is owned with the students. They were devoting time mid-year to re-examining what titles and topics were currently available, and then considering what should or should not be available for future reading experiences. Every student had some level of authority in the texts available and how they were displayed.4
This, I suspect, is part of the trade off with including students in co-organizing their learning environment: we believe that some objectives and teaching points might be lost. There are so many standards to begin with, that it makes sad sense when a teacher controls all aspects of literacy instruction. To release responsibility for learning means letting go to some extent of the outcomes. It also means accepting that learning can happen without teaching.
I came back to the room later that day. The teacher commented that one student was surprised by how many text features are in graphic novels. She had pulled one from her book box. Her copy was from home. Technically, not a part of the classroom library, yet she did meet the expectations of the learning intention (“explore”) and she better understands the idea in her own context.
What have you taught with a classroom library? Share your experience in the comments.5
Regie Routman devotes a whole chapter to classroom libraries in her book Reading Essentials (Heinemann, 2008).
In one study, highlighted in this article, the researchers found that simply having books to read in the classroom was not enough to significantly increase reading achievement. Teachers need to make the classroom library a part of their reading instruction.
You can find used copies such as through Thriftbooks.
Looking to start a classroom library but lack resources? The Book Love Foundation, started by English teacher Penny Kittle, provides fiction and nonfiction titles for classrooms in need. Their mission is to help “teachers create inclusive classroom libraries in order to deepen empathy and to inspire a love of reading in all students.”
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