Kids who have access to great books become readers. There is simply nothing that makes teaching reading easier, that gets kids reading with greater volume, or that lifts reading skills higher than a collection of truly fabulous books.
To help you achieve these ambitions results, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, consulting with a wide range of literacy leaders and young adult literature experts, developed state-of-the-art classroom libraries for each grade level, guided by several key ideas:
- Books were selected for high interest, richness (books that can be mined again and again), and quality of writing and content.
- The libraries aim to introduce as many authors and titles as possible and include some all-star classics, but also many of the newest, cutting-edge titles.
- To ensure all students have access to high-quality, high-interest books, complete libraries are available in versions for students reading both at and below benchmark levels.
- Additional book club shelves, not included in the full Classroom Libraries, are available on topics such as historical fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction.
We share a mission: to put books into kids' hands - and hearts. The TCRWP Classroom Libraries offer you an important way to grow a positive classroom book culture that will help you recruit all your students to love reading and move them up levels of complexity.
This Guide to the TCRWP Classwoom Libraries, Grades 6-8 will help orient you and your students to your new Library, provide guidance on how to organize and make the best use of these wonderful books, and support and enhance your instructional practices, with discussions of topics including:
- the research base for the libraries and how they support best-practice reading instruction;
- strategies and tips for setting up, introducing, organizing, and managing your library;
- book leveling and assessment, and matching readers to books;
- curation, contents, and usage suggestions for complete libraries and specific shelves;
- book clubs and series books; and
- important teaching methods such as conferring; reading aloud; and partnership, small-group, and independent reading.
