Effective Use of Classroom Libraries

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Effective Use of Classroom Libraries

• NJTESOL/NJBE
• May 19, 2009
• Mary Jane Kurabinski
• NJ Department of Education

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Classroom Libraries

• Recommendations
• Quantity
• Genre
• Organization
• Other considerations

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Recent findings

• Gambrell and Marinak
• Study of motivation
• Schools define reading as reading books
• Boys in Grades 3 and 5 did not like teachers to
  read aloud. Why?

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Importance of choice/rewards

• Book/choice
• Book/no choice
• Token/choice
• Token/no choice
• Control group no reward/no choice
• When asked to choose an activity on their own,
  which group of students chose reading as the
  first choice?

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What roles do books play in the classroom?

• Read Alouds
• Shared Reading
• Guided Reading
• Independent Reading
• Projects to gather information
• Pleasure to enjoy the story and the process

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• NO ONE would deny the importance of conversation
  in a childs life. But when it comes to building
  rich vocabulary, nothing does it like words that
  come from print. When researchers counted the
  words we use most often, the total came to 10,000
  different words (the most common word is the).
  Beyond the 10,000 mark, you meet what are called
  the rare words. Though we use these words less
  frequently in conversation, they make up more and
  more of what you must know in order to understand
  complicated ideas and feelings in print, be it
  The New York Times, textbook, or novel. Thus the
  more rare (book) words a child knows, the more
  easily he or she will be able to read complex
  ideas.
• from Why Read Aloud to Children?

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Total words (in millions) heard by child by age 4
(by family income)

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Number of rare words met per thousand
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Classroom libraries

• Support literacy instruction
• Help students learn more about books
• Provide access a place to go
• Provide opportunities
• Allow students to touch, explore, interact with
  all kinds of books

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Organization

• Level
• Theme/topic
• Genre
• Author
• Read alouds
• Picture books
• Mentor texts/writing craft

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Reference

• Trelease, Jim. 2006. The Read Aloud Handbook.
  New York Penguin Books.

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Contact

• Mary Jane Kurabinski
• Director \Office of Language Arts Literacy
  Education
• NJ Department of Education
• PO Box 500
• Trenton, NJ 08625
• Phone [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Mary-jane.kurabinski_at_doe.state.nj.us