Growing up in Philadelphia, the public schools barely had text books let alone classroom libraries. Every once in a while, some teachers would use their own money to buy a book and read it to the entire class. Those books would never stay in the class, instead the books would go home with its owner. As stated in my “Introduction to Urban Novels” post, independent reading wasn’t encouraged very much. The local library was almost always empty and always viewed as a place that kids hated to go to. So, for many years I went without a classroom library. Until the 6thgrade when we were exposed to a classroom library in music. It was a very popular library in the class because it provided stories behind the music and artists that we were learning about. Learning about the other side of music made the songs that much more interesting.
I want to build a classroom library that has stories behind the story in my social studies class. Having input from the characters making history or the people behind them makes a subject that more interesting. It also helps with kids learning to develop good research s
kills before actually doing research. Classroom libraries are a must in our schools.
I really appreciated your candor in talking about libraries in your area growing up. Hopefully we as a nation are working to make our classrooms better equipped with necessities like this. I totally agree about using a social studies library to tell the stories of the different characters from history.
ReplyDeleteYou never know who is going to be sitting in your classroom. You might have a student who has never been exposed to a classroom library and you might be that one teacher in their life that did. You're so right about school libraries being empty so as a teacher don't be afraid to befriend your school's librarian. They have a wealth of knowledge and can get you some pretty cool books for your classroom. Plus if your students see that you're friends with that person it could pique their interest and start changing the stereotype.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about classroom libraries as building research skills without explicitly teaching them! That's just another reason that for me solidifies my own decision to develop a small library in my future classroom as well. People are naturally curious and I think if we encourage that curiosity we can develop lifelong learners.
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