Crystal Arteaga Blog 2
Chapter 2 was amazing! I loved reading about how she has her classroom set up and the ideas were endless. I really enjoyed the specific examples she gave on her methods and why it works! Starting your own library seems very intimidating but also very exciting. The book helped with these feelings when she mentioned the ways of starting your own classroom library. She gave a list of ways to find new books including colleges, friends, blogs, stores, reviews and randomly picking a new book. All of these methods are ways children can find new books to read as well.
One of my favorite parts was reading about her Read-Alouds! She realized that picking novels or long books was not working out for her classroom because the book would last months and many students would either loose interest or finish the book on their own! Read- Alouds should be something the whole class can enjoy and something that will not take 6 months to finish! Read-Alouds should be any type of readings such as short stories, online articles, mysteries, comedies, poems, etc. Having a variety in the books that you read will allow your students to experience different genres and different ways of reading.
One of my fears before was not knowing what book fits what student? How you find out what books the like? How can you open their minds to different genres? Mrs. Miller gave great ideas on how to do this. She always introduces new books and gives the class a good unbiased review. This allows children to make their decision on whether the book is a good fit for them or not. In order for children to get a fair chance at reading a new book, she created a book drawing. Children chose whether they would like to enter a drawing based off of her review of the book. The winner of the drawing got to read the book first. This is a great way to get children motivated and excited on reading!
This chapter got me very excited on creating my own classroom library! Miller mentioned that keeping new and updated books is important because we want our students to enjoy reading and become wild readers and this means proving new and modern books for them! Something that really stuck out to me was , ” It is our classroom library– ours to learn from and share and enjoy for the entire year.” After all the great information I received, I think the biggest challenge would be working with students who come into your classroom “hating” books! How do you motivate them and reach them?