My teacher uses book bins in her classroom. If students have finished their library book then they are welcome to browse the book bins. They are separated by genre, with varying reading levels in each bin. This way something in each bin will appeal to each reader. These are chapter books. My teacher also uses the window ledge above the book bins to showcase the picture books they are reading, have read, and will read. Students are also welcome to these books at any time. I think that these could be utilized better and more often. When the students finish their work, I would like the only option be to read a book until time is up. Instead my students are allowed computer time. Growing up I always had either DEAR or SSR during the day. All of my teachers would also read during this time, showing me the importance of reading. I think that something like this would be very beneficial in our classroom. It would get students reading!
*This is an image from Google. I wasn't able to take a picture but this looks exactly like what she has.
Hi Julie!
ReplyDeleteI really love some of the ideas that you brought up in this blog post. Mainly, I feel very strongly about the fact that students be restricted to only reading silently when they finish their work. This is also something I was forced to do in school and I honestly believe that those times where I was allowed to read my own book made me love reading! If we want students to become engaged in books and enjoy them, they need more time where they can read a book of their choosing. I also love the idea of the teacher reading during DEAR time as well. I remember too many times as a student where my teachers would be moving about the classroom, grading papers, and making phone calls during DEAR time. Not only was it distracting for me but I did not think reading was very important to my teacher. As a teacher someday, I definitely hope to model appropriate DEAR time for my students!
Back to your teacher's book bins. I am curious as to how many of your students actually utilize these book bins? Do you find that most of the kids try to go to the computers or do they actually read? I think it might be neat if the teacher incorporated some kind of reading program along with these books. Maybe she has an optional 3 question quiz for each book that students can take once they finish one. If they do well on the quiz there could be some kind of reward. This idea is based off of a program my elementary school did during the month of March. It was through the library and open to all students in the school. I think that having a goal like this would make the students more excited about reading the books in the book bins! This would also help the teacher to keep track of the students' progress.
Do you think you would use book bins in your own classroom? How do you think you would use this system differently than your MT does now?