Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay, but I have some problems with the blog. For the third post I have chosen to talk about the activity that we did in groups related to create a classroom library.
First of all, I have to say I like a lot this activity or project. For me, has been very useful because I have learnt more about how can I create a classroom library and the things that are able to do or not.
Maybe, at the beginning you can think is an easy thing to create a classroom library, but I have to say that is not as easy as I thought when I started the project. When you think in your classroom library, you have to think not only in a space the other way round, you have to thing that it has to be the SPACE, the space in which students feel comfortable and confident with themselves. Also you have to think that it has to be a very special place for them that motivate to read but also you have to think in your Head Department of your school and the budget and more things that if you don’t try to create a classroom library you don’t realize.
When I thought in that space, I thought like a child, thinking the things that I would like to have in my class when I was a child. I considered very important to be catchy with the space and also with the books that they have to read. Why also the books? Because in my opinion, at least when I was a child, some books are really boring for children, and it can cause the frustration of the student or maybe the dislike for reading books.
As teachers, we have to take into account all of these things, and pay special attention on it. My classroom library it based on some activities that we considered interesting to motivate them to read, but maybe, we have a problem with the budget and also with the things that we want to do. For this reason, I think that I have learnt form my mistakes, and it is not only select good books or create a good space and environment or create good activities for separated. It has to be all together, a good space in which there was good books and also we could do an useful activities to motivate them.
Remember! It is very crucial your election of your classroom library and for this reason you have to be responsible to take the best decision and try to do the best activities to improve and motivate them to reading books.
To finish with, I want to say that there was some Classroom library’s exhibition that I like it so much. For example the Stork’s project was for me one of the best projects next to Rocio’s group. Congratulations to all the groups because I think it was really useful for us and you did it very well.
Hi Luis, I’m glad you liked our proposal. It was not an easy project to design, but I hope it showed at least a glimpse of all the ideas we considered that were important to be included.
When you speak about the space, I reckon that, despite of being aware of the importance of having a good classroom library, it is sometimes difficult for me to allow the necessary space to make of it more than a corner or a couple of shelves with books. For that reason, and always keeping in mind the budget, we decided not to sacrifize the sturdy furniture and rug, nor an ample catalogue, neither the space we considered the minimum to be useful in the long term.
There is another aspect that needs to be carefully considered when designing the classroom library, and it has to do with the offer and selection of titles. There could be hundreds of books available for the pupils, but if they are not age-appropriate, level-appropriate, or motivating enough, they will just not work for that class. Knowing your pupils comes in very handy for that reason.
I just hope, when we have the chance to create a real classroom library, that we will have enough resources to do it right. Until then, we’ll keep on dreaming on paper.