A Library from Scratch: A New Teachers Tale


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A Library from Scratch: A New Teacher's Tale

Erin Ocon

A few weeks ago, I saw the walls of my new classroom. And by walls, I mean that quite literally. There are only walls to see: thick concrete, with a hole in the center that looked out onto a wide suburban street. The middle school I will begin work at this fall has experienced an enormous growth in population, and so many new classrooms are being built. My new classroom will match me: a new teacher.

The principal has apologized several times that he doesn't yet know when I will be able to set up my classroom. The construction may just finish a day or two before the school year is scheduled to begin. At first I joked around about it. "Well," I said, "I'm just being forced to relax this summer." And yet, as the summer has begun to wind down, I've been filled with a growing sense of dread. All of my fears about my first year of teaching have begun to express themselves as fears about my first experience with classroom decorating.

What if I'm not able to create an environment the students feel comfortable in? What if it doesn't seem like a place they'd like to be? But, I've tried to boil down what I really want for my students to see when they walk into the classroom. I want them to see a library. I want my students to know that reading is what matters in this classroom.

This was my philosophical stance, and my practical stance was: I'd like the whole thing to be cheap. I was not quite sure what other materials I would need to buy with school funds for my new year in the new classroom, and so I decided I would plan on funding the beginning of my library on my own. Of course, since I have yet to receive my first paycheck, this wasn't necessarily an easy proposition.

Yet, I found as I looked around town, that despite my preference for beautiful hardcover books, I am surrounded by other options. Used books stores and thrift shops abounded with affordable ($1.00 - $2.00) choices. Libraries will often sell used books at low prices. Goodwill turned out to be my most successful source for inexpensive books. While used book stores priced books based on the quality of their copy, Goodwill had almost every young adult paperback priced at 99 cents - even copies that looked as though they had barely been opened! In addition to spending my own money, I let my friends and family know about my desire to create a library, and I received gift cards to book stores for my birthday, and old books in the mail.

Soliciting "Expert" Advice

Now that I had settled the funding question, I tried to picture my students, and wondered what books they would like to find in a classroom. I'll be teaching seventh and eighth graders, who are not always known for being the easiest of audiences. How could I decide what they'd want to read? Or should I concentrate more on what they should read? And who on earth, can possibly make that judgment call?

For that, I went to the experts. And by experts, I don't mean librarians, fellow teachers and English majors, or even one of the multiple book lists that are out there. I went to the people I knew, all of whom I realized with wonder, had once been thirteen. The varied responses I have received of must-read books have both inspired and amazed me. My mother-in-law and a friend of mine loved the whole Anne of Green Gables series, even though I never got that into it. My sister read Phillip Pullman nonstop when she was in middle school.

Going book shopping with my husband was perhaps the most intriguing of all. I've always wondered what middle school boys really loved to read, and some of his adolescent favorites surprised me. He selected Journey to the Center of the Earth (Enriched Classic) by Jules Verne, as a book he had loved, along with the more modern Redwall (Redwall, Book 1). On my own, I might have passed these by.

I also thought back to all the conversations I'd had with the students at my internship over the past year. Middle school boys I'd known had tastes that varied from H.G. Wells to Stephen King to Jerry Spinnelli. One boy had set a goal to read all of John Grisham's books over the summer. Many of my female students had loved the Gossip Girl #1: A Novel (Gossip Girl Series), but had also devoured the books Speak and The Body of Christopher Creed.

Yet, thinking of some of their tastes also made me a bit nervous. Some of the books middle school students enjoy would be given PG-13 or in some cases, even R-ratings. As I sifted through book shelves, I struggled with what books I should include in my library, and what I should cast away as "inappropriate." In the end, I've packed even some of the books I've questioned, if they will only end up sitting in the shelf by my desk. I want to make sure my classroom contained a wide range of reading material, that deals with issues my students really are interested in, even if I won't give these books out to every reader (last year, I created a parental permission slip for some).

Now that my classroom library weighs more than I will be able to get to my car without some more help from my husband, I am amazed with how it turned out. Thanks to help from my family and friends, including a $25.00 gift card to a used book store, I have only spent about $35.00 of my own money! For these prices, I am very happy with the range of my beginning collection. My library contains a balance of classical authors and modern authors, and reading levels. The genres run from more real-life adolescent fiction, to fantasy, science fiction, and one western. Yet, it also represents the limited life experiences of me and my circle of acquaintances.

Although I have some books by Asian and African American authors, my classroom library currently sadly lacks books by Latino writers, a voice I really want my diverse students to see represented. And so far, besides some of my old copies of National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines, my literature has also been limited to novels. I have one Ray Bradbury short story collection, but shorter fiction, and student friendly graphic novels are also noticeably lacking.

Yet, before I can start to panic about this, I'm forcing myself to take a deep breath. After all, there's still a few shopping days left before the school year. And I've begun to realize, my library won't really be complete, without student input. My first year of teaching, I hope I learn from my students about the different ways they are readers.

And the more I think about relinquishing control to them, the more a wonderful idea fills my mind. I bet the students would help me decorate the walls!

My Classroom Library (so far):

Watership Down: A Novel, Richard Adams

Little Women (Signet Classics), Louisa May Alcott

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou, Maya Angelou

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

The October Country, Ray Bradbury

Girl with a Pearl Earring, Deluxe Edition, Tracy Chevalier

Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton

Stotan!, Chris Crutcher

Whale Talk, Chris Crutcher

Coraline Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman