Library of Dreams

Like the Billy Joel song...

That is how strongly I feel about my classroom library.  And I should feel like that, because this project occupied my entire day.  What I thought would be a 2 hour project, took 7!  7 hours!  I've always wanted an organized library.  I have an amazing one at home, so why should school be any different? I've tried in years past to organize my class library, but I've always been bogged down in the number of genres I chose to separate the books into or felt immediately discouraged when the library dissolved into a complete mess by the end of the first week.

Then I read The Book Whisperer - the subject of my previous post.  Donalyn Miller describes in the appendix about "The Care and Feeding of a Classroom Library."  I thought to myself, "this could work."

Introducing, my new and redesigned classroom library (click on each picture for a larger view):

Each basket is labeled with the genre of the books it contains.

Every basket has a number.  That same number is also on every book in that basket.

Organized books are a lovely sight.

I am ecstatic about the results.  And I should be... because while other teachers were planning and hanging hallway bulletin boards, I was on the floor sorting books.  Totally worth it.