Organizing the books that your students are reading independently often presents a challenge for teachers. How can you keep track of what's in the boxes, ensure everyone is making appropriate choices, and have enough of the books your students need on hand? Many teachers use book boxes, book bins or book bags to help their students stay organized for reading times. Sometimes these boxes or bags contain books that are "just-right" for the child to read independently. In other classrooms students use these boxes or bags to think ahead in their reading. We have learned that there is no one right way to manage books for independent reading. There are many ways that work well. We asked four Choice Literacy contributors to share their strategies here for making the best use of book boxes in classrooms, as well as dealing with problems that arise.

From Katie DiCesare, 1st Grade Teacher (Dublin, Ohio)

Book bins are an anchor for literacy learning in my classroom. They are a home for the books students love, practice and want to know more about. In the first months of school, I use book bins to teach children how to choose their favorite books, read them with friends, and share the hows and whys of their choices. We use the bins to help us learn about the classroom library by sorting books back into the baskets on the shelves (about every two weeks or so at the beginning of the year). If there is a book that a student has heard aloud that is in another child's bin, kids simply ask to borrow it. If there is a wanderer who has trouble making choices, I meet with him/her to model how to choose, and then partner him/her up with a peer who can provide good advice or support while choices are being made.

After the first six weeks of school, when I meet with groups of students or individuals, I guide them in finding books for practice that fit in their bin. I know them now as readers, so I can be a little more focused in helping them make choices (and I expect more focus from them, too). Practice books meet the students' developmental reading needs. I may guide emergent and early readers with picture books and leveled books that will help them grow. These books are then added to their bin. When I guide transitional readers, I often help them find books they have an interest in, whether it be books by a favorite author (like Mo Willems), books in a series (like Fly Guy) or books that meet a personal interest (like trucks or bugs).

Later in the year the bin also becomes useful during reading workshop, writing workshop and word study when the students use the books they know and love to think specifically about a strategy, notice text, locate word patterns, or share their thinking with the class or a partner.

From Ann Marie Corgill, 1st Grade Teacher (New York City/Alabama)

I use book bags instead of boxes because they take up less room and can be stored easily in big baskets around the room. I buy them from Teaching Resource Center (www.trcabc.com). They're called book "pouches" at this store, and I'm still using the same ones I bought six years ago!

At the beginning of the year, when I am just learning about the kids and their reading preferences/needs/abilities, I have a basket on each table in the room with a variety of texts (fiction/nonfiction/poetry/magazines) that might interest the kids. In years past these have been close to "just right" for first graders at the beginning of the year. During independent reading in the first few weeks of school, the kids choose from these baskets only, until I meet with them for their first conference and help them build their first bag of books

For the first semester of school, children swap books and get new ones when they have a conference with me. This way I can learn about their preferences and guide them to specific parts of the classroom library. Each time we meet, I am learning about their needs and interests, and they are learning how to navigate the classroom library. If they are finished with a book or books, I put those books back in the baskets on the tables--it saves time. Those books can either be re-shelved at a later time or given to another child in another conference. I hate to take time re-shelving during a conference, so this basket on the table is a great holding place for those books.

By the second semester, students have learned about the library, are pretty confident in their abilities and interests, and are much better at choosing books on their own. I trust that they are making wise choices. It's at this point that they are able to exchange books in their bags without me. They know where to go in the classroom library to find the books they need. Most of the time they just say "I need new books" and I say "Okay--Can't wait to see what you've chosen when we meet again." Of course, there are still some children who need my support, and the number of children who need extra support changes from class to class and year to year.

From Franki Sibberson, Grades 3-4 Teacher (Dublin, Ohio)

In grades 3 and 4, book boxes serve several purposes. By 3rd grade, students are beginning to read longer, more complex books. They are starting to find authors they love, and looking for recommendations of books that they may want to read in the future. One of the purposes of book boxes at this level is to give students a concrete reason to begin thinking ahead as readers. It is a place to begin building a "next-read stack" - a pile of books they may want to read later in the year. By having a box to collect books in, I find that students begin to form the habit of keeping their eyes open for books they may want to read in the future. When they find a book, they place it in their box.

Another purpose of the book box at this level is to invite reading of a variety of genres. Most students at this age are involved in chapter book reading, and many are caught up in a favorite series. With the book boxes, I encourage each child to also include quick reads - picture books, poetry, and nonfiction. The box serves as a tangible way to focus our conversations about the variety of texts a student is reading, and ways to make time for many different kinds of reading.

From Karen Terlecky, 5th Grade Teacher (Dublin, Ohio)

In 5th grade, my students do not keep book boxes or book bags in the traditional sense. Instead, we start by keeping lists - books I may have recommended, series they want to try, books their friends enjoyed, read alouds they want to reread on their own. Those lists all live in the same place - the student's "Book Lover's Binder." This binder contains their history as a reader in 5th grade, so what better spot to have a list of all the books they're looking forward to reading? As these lists accumulate, every year a movement starts without my direction, and I just allow it to happen. Students begin piling books they want to read on the corner of their desks. At any given moment, I can walk around the class and see what's coming up next in my readers' lives. I'll be quite honest - these book piles can make the room look a bit cluttered at times. However, when I look at my own reading spaces at home, they also look cluttered with books I am planning to read. I live the life of a reader, and if that's what I want for my students at school, I need to look past the clutter and into my students' reading lives at school.