Questions:
1. How do you manage centers for six grade levels?
2. What is your procedure for checking books in and out?
3. Do you conduct author studies with any of the grades?
Answers:
1. It took me a while to figure out how to manage my centers, but now I have it running like a "well-oiled machine!" I have a chart paper tablet with a page for each class/teacher. My groups are color-coded (orange, green, blue, and yellow). Each week I rotate the centers for each group. In fifth grade, for instance, I have one group working on their PowerPoint presentations on the computers, one group is in the listening center, one group is conducting research at the library skills table, and another group is working on accelerated reading at the Ipad station. While they are working at their centers I will call students a group at a time to check out books. The hardest part about managing the centers is that there is not always enough time between classes to reorganize the centers or switch out materials for the different grade levels. Every now and then I have a volunteer to help me, and that makes things so much easier to manage!
2. I start teaching the students how to check their own books in and out starting in kindergarten. The students know to check out their books in groups of two, so they can help each other and be accountable for one another. I have the volume set as loud as it will go so that I can hear the notifications...if a there is a whistle alert, the students know to wait for me to see what the problem is. By the time the students are in fourth grade, I start selecting students to be library helpers. I typically solicit input from the teachers for students in good standing. During the last half hour of the school day the library is open for accelerated reading rewards, free check-out, and library helpers. I rarely shelve the books anymore because I have trained my fourth and fifth grade helpers to shelve the books...they are great at it and they love it!
3. I love conducting Author studies! That is pretty much what I do with the first graders all year long! We are just finishing a Don Freeman author study this week! Some of the other authors we studied this year were: Chris Van Allsburg, Dr. Seuss, Simms Taback, and Kevin Henkes, to name a few. Once we conduct a study of an author, the students are lining up to check out the books!
Reflection
This school was specifically selected for me to observe by my principal, who has been working closely with the principal of this school. When my principal saw the way this librarian runs the library, she was very impressed, and hoped to someday have a similar type of library program in our library. The librarian at this school has been there for years, but she has energy like you have never seen before! It is easy to see that her students are just crazy about her, and the feeling is mutual. I was a little intimidated at the thought of trying to get a program like hers up and running, but she reminded me that Rome was not built in a day, and the best thing to do if you want to do centers in your library is to just try to do one or two grade levels to begin with (Don't try to create centers for the whole school at once!) and to always align the centers with the standards. I felt so relieved when she assured me that I could call or email anytime, and she would be happy to mentor me and share her expertise whenever I need it.
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