The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy

May 19, 2007

Thinking is Sorting

One of my favorite quotes is "All thinking is sorting," from the literary critic I.A. Richards. Spring puts many of us on a cleaning tear, and brings out the love/hate relationship so many of us have with sorting. It would be tempting just to throw everything out in those growing piles or take a backhoe to those cluttered spots, but we can't - there's a treasure or two in there, and we saved that stuff in that jumble for a reason.

Nowhere does the "thinking is sorting" mantra play out more than in classroom libraries. We can't look at libraries without thinking about how we organize information, what catches our eye, the difference between what appeals to us and what appeals to the kids, the sometimes fine line between trash reading and a book that builds essential skills...

This week and next we'll be featuring ideas for reorganizing classroom libraries. This is a great time of year for thinking about what's worked all year long in how books are organized and displayed in classrooms, and which books are ready to be weeded out of bins and shelves. We've got some suggestions for end of the year activities with students that not only enlist their help in cleaning up the library, but also in reflecting as a community about what makes a book engaging. Enjoy!

Brenda Power

Editor, Choice Literacy

www.choiceliteracy.com

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From the Choice Literacy Archives, Gayle Brand in "Coaching Moment" helps a colleague sort through and organize her classroom library, and discovers the process is a wonderful catalyst for talking about reading instruction in an informal, natural setting:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/87.cfm

This book-sorting activity for students from the IRA/NCTE ReadWriteThink forum is a thoughtful, hands-on suggestion for enlisting students to think through what categories and tubs for books in your classroom make sense. It also provides any teacher with insight into what students notice about books as they make their selections:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=145

Thanks for your wonderful response to Choice Literacy's summer workshop slate! The Becoming a Literacy Coach event with Jennifer Allen is now SOLD OUT at the Portland, Oregon location, and only a handful of seats remain at the Columbus, Ohio and Portland, Maine locations. Space is available for all other events, but they are filling rapidly. For registration details on all available events, please click on the link below. We hope to see you this summer:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm

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Shari Frost sorts through the changing world of audio books, and their resurgence in popularity with smaller, cheaper, and trendier MP3 players. In "More Than Listening Centers," she shares some of the innovative ways literacy coaches and teachers in her network are using audio books incorporating newer technologies. Shari's feature article also includes a "Top 10" list of audio books for students:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/351.cfm

The Sisters (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser) help Carrie, a second year teacher, begin to reorganize her library around bins with themes. This short time-lapse video shows the sorting process, and includes a debrief session where bin placement according to traffic and interest is discussed:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/353.cfm

Katie DiCesare writes about how children can be enlisted to help in creating and organizing book bins in libraries. But in Katie's classroom, the process of matching books to children begins with "My Stack" - her pile of books that changes daily, linking individual children and texts of interest. "My Stack" guides instruction all day long:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/352.cfm

From the Choice Literacy Archives, one of the most popular features early last fall was the exchange between Aimee Buckner and Franki Sibberson on organizing libraries for intermediate readers:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/124.cfm

That's all for this week!