How School Librarians Can Integrate the Workshop Model & Classroom Libraries

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Barbara Paciotti

It’s not unusual to see a School Librarian post something like this on my listservs:

The English Language Arts department adopted a reading & writing workshop model and classroom libraries. Students choose books in their classrooms and read for 10-minutes at the start of class, so teachers no longer bring them to the library. Our library circulation has plummeted and I don’t think students have the time and freedom they previously had for free reading.

Friends, this is why our library program MUST be more than just books and reading! If we focus only on promoting reading and checking out books, we will suffer when classroom libraries and reading workshop programs are implemented. Our school library must be a multi-faceted learning space, not just a book repository.

I’m a School Librarian who has gone through this experience, and I can tell you that, because I built strong curricular relationships with ELA teachers, I wasn’t adversely affected when our district adopted such a program. Well, we did follow the “rules” for the first semester, but teachers were very unhappy with our reading results, so the following semester we reverted to our already-successful regular recurring ELA library visits with sustained silent reading. Yes, because of our long record of DEAR/SSR, we were able to see the shortcomings of the new model.

PITFALLS OF POOR WORKSHOP IMPLEMENTATION

10-minute reading doesn’t allow story immersion
Students need 2 or 3 chapters to really get into a story, and that takes a lot longer than 10 minutes. Teachers found that students weren’t continuing to read a book they’d chosen the day before, but would look for a new one. Limiting their browse time didn’t solve the problem and students just grabbed any book off the shelf, read for the allotted time period, then put the book back and grabbed a new one the next day. Students weren’t really “reading” nor finishing books; they were just fulfilling a “requirement.”
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10-minute reading doesn’t foster comprehension
Try it yourself. Pick up a new book and read for 10 minutes, then mark your place and put it away. The next day, pick up the same book and begin reading where you left off—don’t reread—for 10 minutes. Do the same thing for a third day, and when you put the book down, write a short summary of the story. The fourth day, start a brand new book at the beginning and read for 25-30 minutes, then write a short summary of the new story. Compare the two summaries: you’ll shake your head at the shallow understanding those short reading periods gave you and how much more you got out of the longer sustained reading session. You’ll also want to continue reading that second book!
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10-minute reading doesn’t build reading endurance
When we reverted back to our regular library visits with DEAR Time, kids would look at the clock after 8 or 9 minutes to see if the “10 minutes” they’d gotten used to was over—and then they’d get restless and disruptive. Even upper grades who had enjoyed extended reading in prior years did this. We cajoled and stuck with it–providing the same long DEAR Time in classrooms in the off weeks–and eventually students settled into reading for 25-30 minutes.

So ended our experiment with daily reading as a “bell-ringer” activity. In all fairness, the workshop model is intended to provide lengthier reading times, but all too often teachers make “reading workshop” into chopped-up text analysis instead of free reading and an ending summation activity.

DON’T FIGHT CLASSROOM LIBRARIES – SUPPORT THEM

I rarely purchase more than 2 hardback copies of any book, even if popular, because extra copies sit on the shelf after the first burst of interest and are weeded for non-circulation within a couple years. I’m happy to have teachers build classroom libraries with several paperback copies of best sellers. By the time popularity wanes, the books are worn out and latecomers are satisfied by the 2 library copies.

Classroom libraries mean fewer intermittent book checkouts, but those aren’t a huge contributor to circulation. With nascent classroom libraries, teachers limited students to 1 book at a time from their shelves, and with the workshop model’s increased reading, I decided to increase book checkout limits from 2/student to 3/student and, by the end of the school year, to 4/student. Students also read during downtime in other subject areas, so by having an extra book from the school library, they can start a new story instead of waiting for ELA class or bi-weekly library visit. Continued reading increased our circulation beyond what was expected from just increasing checkout limits!

Classroom libraries did produce 2 problems for ELA teachers: lack of shelf space for books and lack of funds to keep purchasing new books. Because they were so supportive of the library program, I wanted to help:

For the library’s 5-foot high bookcases I use 3 shelves for books and the bottom shelf to display new or topical books. Since each bookcase came with 5 shelves, I had more than 100 extra solid oak shelves stacked up.
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Deciding to use these extra shelves, I designed a 6” deep, 2-shelf bookcase to fit under whiteboards in ELA classrooms. I had a high school construction class build 4 of these for each ELA teacher. You can imagine their surprise when I gave each teacher 20 feet of additional paperback shelving that didn’t eat into their classroom space!
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I’d been running a school store during lunch in the cafeteria for a couple years. Priced from 25¢ to $2, students gobbled up these fun & flashy school supplies, and the income purchased more supplies. Still, I had accumulated some significant profits, so I decided to donate $385 of school store profits to the ELA department to purchase new books for their classroom libraries.
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If ELA teachers were delighted with the bookshelves, they were over-the-moon about the money! They met at our local brand-name bookstore that very weekend and chose dozens of new books–substantially discounted, thanks to a supportive store manager. They praised students for helping to get those books by supporting the school store, and my business boomed even more during ensuing weeks. At the end of the school year I donated another $160 to ELA teachers.

The point here is, instead of complaining about classroom libraries, I found a way to solve the problems my ELA colleagues were having with this curricular change. Instead of a drop in circulation, ELA teachers were even more consistent about bringing students to the library and my circulation soared!

INTEGRATED THEMATIC LIBRARY “WORKSHOP” LESSONS

In its simplest form, the workshop model has 4 parts: opening, mini-lesson, work time, and debriefing. This coordinates with the 4 instructional steps of my Library Lesson Planner: direct instruction, modeling & guided practice, independent practice, and sharing & reflecting, so I configure our library visits as Reader Writer Workshops:

• Warm-up – I share Learning Targets and allow for the return of books.
• Mini-Lesson – Direct Instruction and Modeling & guided practice to the whole class.
• Workshop is Independent practice. Usually we have Reader Workshop where students browse for new books and have DEAR Time free reading. Sometimes the lesson is Writer Workshop where students complete an activity.
• Sharing & reflecting – The last several minutes of the period is our by-table book checkout and I can talk to each student about the books they’ve chosen.

With the first Library Orientation visit, 6g ELA teachers liked my adoption of the Workshop model, but I knew I could do more. I studied the new scope & sequence, and I could see opportunities for Library Lessons that would provide a more enriching experience covering the entire class period.

Teachers and I collaborated to customize Library Lessons with Literary Text Unit Themes and integrate their classroom learning activities into a full-period Library Lesson visit. The new Library Lessons are spread out over the entire unit, yet we still allow plenty of time for book browsing and silent reading. Because we collaborated, English Language Arts is intricately woven into every-other-week library visits, and the content and pacing of curriculum is not just preserved, but enhanced.

I’ve adapted 6th grade Literary Text Units for use by any middle school librarian. Units for Narrative text, Expository text, and Persuasion units are available from No Sweat Library, my TeachersPayTeachers store. A poetry unit is under construction.

MAKE EVERY LIBRARY VISIT IRREPLACEABLE

I clarify that my school library program wasn’t negatively impacted by the workshop model and classroom libraries for 3 reasons:

We’d already established regularly scheduled library visits with silent reading every other week for all ELA classes.
I’d already created short Library Lessons for some visits that supported classroom learning.
The strong relationship between School Librarian and English Language Arts teachers prompted collaboration to overcome the deficiencies of the workshop curricular plan.

The School Library can’t just be about reading books. School Librarians need to rigorously contribute to student learning by fully integrating Library Lessons into all subject curricula. Otherwise, we can’t lament a lack of appreciation for the library when curriculum changes affect our circulation.

Reading Logs and the School Librarian

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Barbara Paciotti

Do your teachers use Reading Logs to document student reading? Does your “school policy” dictate that teachers employ reading logs with students? If so, you—and some of your teachers—may be asking these questions:

What is the purpose of reading logs?
Are some reading logs better than others?
What are the alternatives to reading logs?

If you were an elementary or ELA teacher before becoming a School Librarian you may accept reading logs as a normal part of the classroom experience. I’m a School Librarian from a different subject background, and I have some concerns about this practice.

THE PURPOSE OF READING LOGS

Many teachers believe a reading log is a good way to develop students as readers:

They keep track of books they’ve read and which ones they liked.
They learn which kinds of stories (subjects/genres) they prefer.
They self-assess and understand themselves as readers.
Teachers can dialogue with students about their reading.

These are admirable purposes, but too often the result is forced daily reading and recording the number of minutes and/or pages on a chart, to be signed by a parent, and turned in to the teacher. I saw hundreds of these during a quick image search, and here’s a typical layout:

Unfortunately, this type of reading log doesn’t really fulfill any of a reading log’s intended purposes!

Such reading logs were the topic a few years ago on Scott McLeod’s blog “Dangerously Irrelevant”, based on a blog post by parent Lisa Morguess, who had this to say:

A reading log says, “I don’t trust you to read.”
They turn reading into a chore.
Time spent matters more than content or understanding.
This is not learning – it’s obedience.

There were dozens of comments on both posts, and commenter Mark was particularly anguished:

I shudder at the very recent memory of my 5th grade daughter proudly bringing me her reading log to show me how much she had read this week and then, of course, get me to sign it. My daughter loves to read, but now her pride is…her log, rather than discussing her books in great detail as she did just this past summer, when there was no log.

As a School Librarian, I believe this type of reading log is not about students at all–it’s about teacher accountability. How else can a teacher “prove” that they are “teaching” kids to “love reading”? For many years we had free reading at our school with great success. One year teachers were told to have students “document” the time they were reading by filling out reading logs and using weekly bookmarks with daily questions to answer. To comply, some teachers even began to dictate what kind and how many books students must check out at their library visits. Well, that year our state test scores dropped, and some of our best ELA teachers left for less rigid environments. All the fun had gone out of reading, so the next year we went back to free—and undocumented—reading (and our reading scores went back up)!

SOME READING LOGS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

As a Middle School Librarian I realized students do like to keep track of books they read, so I created a simple Reading Record with space for the title and author of the book and a star rating for students to indicate how much they enjoyed the book. It wasn’t required and the forms were on the circulation desk for students to put into their binder. This type of record isn’t discouraging—it builds pride in a personal accomplishment.

Then, four consecutive developments prompted me to re-evaluate reading promotion:

We became an International Baccalaureate school, which encourages global-mindedness.
I reorganized our Fiction book area by Subjects (genres) using pictorial spine stickers & color transparent label covers.
The district English Language Arts department launched the Reader/Writer Workshop model with students using interactive Reader/Writer Notebooks.
The district Social Studies department instituted Interactive Notebooks and advocated for more content area reading to support their curriculum.

I could see an interconnection and devised a new strategy to promote more—and better—student reading. First, I identified more Fiction books with multicultural characters and added relevant spine stickers. While reorganizing Fiction, I created 3 Special Collections for Social Studies, one of which focused on global books. Finally, I modified my Library Orientation Lessons to incorporate the wide variety of reading options and created brand new Reading Records:

For ELA, a legal-sized sheet for students to fold in half and paste into their Reader/Writer Notebook:
click to enlarge
1. a reading chart with images of the 8 main Fiction Subject stickers,
2. a chart with images of 5 Multicultural stickers,
3. a chart with 2 additional Fiction Subject stickers, our State Reading List sticker, a space for an expository text informational book, and a space for a poetry book.

I later modified this Reading Record by moving the State Reading list to the Multicultural chart and added grade-level Social Studies books to the third chart so students (by agreement between teachers) could enter the same Narrative Fiction and Expository Informational books for both classes.

For Social Studies, a letter-sized sheet for students to paste into their Interactive Notebook, one for each course:
1. a chart for 6g with images of the continents identifying their GlobeTrekker collection
2. a chart for 7g with reading options for their Sensational State collection (Totally Texas for us)
3. a chart for 8g with reading options for their Read America collection

My ELA teachers are elated with their new Reading Record and prefer it over the one provided by the district. Social Studies teachers also appreciate their customized Reading Record to promote content area reading. Now, I copy and distribute enough Reading Records to ELA and Social Studies teachers so each student can paste one into their Reader/Writer and Interactive Notebooks when they create them during the first week of school.

ALTERNATIVES TO READING LOGS

To help students locate and keep track of similar kinds of stories, I’ve created topical bookmarks. Copied to both sides of colorful card-stock and cut apart, I provide over 2 dozen different bookmarks to students, and they’re a big hit. Some students use the same topical bookmark over and over, so they can track books read by crossing off titles as they read them. Other students use them as a search tool, choosing a new one each time they visit to try a new book topic.

Snip of several colorful topical bookmarks side-by-side

Colorized examples of topical bookmarks

While reading the comments on the blogs mentioned above, I thought Mike F’s comment would be a cool idea for older students:

I love an alternative model from Jim Mahoney in his awesome book, Power and Portfolios. He does “literary letters” where students write more deeply about what they are reading and thinking, and exchange letters with classmates about once a week.

Student Reading Logs can be horribly discouraging for students or they can be valuable enhancements to any reading program for English Language Arts and other content areas. A perceptive School Librarian can see the interconnections between content reading and develop tools that will make a School Library Reading Program preferred by teachers and enjoyed by students.

If you, too, want to increase reading & improve student achievement, get Reading for ELA, Content Reading for Social Studies, or the Reading Promotion for ELA & Social Studies bundle from my NoSweat Library store on TeachersPayTeachers.

Looking Backward – No Sweat Library Lessons & Management That Works

Practical Answers to Questions You Didn’t Know to Ask

Tag Archives: readingliteracy