5.13 Create and information intensive environment that includes print and digital text
Creating a print rich environment in your classroom is very important for the students. You have to practice what you preach. If you constantly tell them how important it is to read but do not have the opportunity or materials for them to do so, you are simply wasting your breath.
My mentor teacher as an extensive classroom library, it is one of the biggest I've seen in past experiences. I hope to have one like that someday in my future classroom. She has them labeled according to the AR reading level and has also included how many points they are worth, that saves some time for the students when they are searching for what to read. One of their morning routines is to go to the classroom library and browse for books; they are too make sure they have three books in their “book baskets” at all times. Mornings are the only time they can search for books but since they are allowed to get three at a time not a student’s search every day. I have found this is a great way to go about this because throughout the day the students have plenty of material in their book baskets to choose from so when we say “Drop Everything and Read” or “It’s time for Read-to-Self”, they have their book in hand and do not have to waste time looking for what to read.
My mentor teacher has the books organized in sections and bins labeled by genres or holidays or authors. She also has a whole shelf behind her desk of different teacher books that have ideas and activities that she can use throughout the year, for example one of my favorites is her Kagan activity book. I have used ideas from this books various times throughout my internship.
My mentor teacher as an extensive classroom library, it is one of the biggest I've seen in past experiences. I hope to have one like that someday in my future classroom. She has them labeled according to the AR reading level and has also included how many points they are worth, that saves some time for the students when they are searching for what to read. One of their morning routines is to go to the classroom library and browse for books; they are too make sure they have three books in their “book baskets” at all times. Mornings are the only time they can search for books but since they are allowed to get three at a time not a student’s search every day. I have found this is a great way to go about this because throughout the day the students have plenty of material in their book baskets to choose from so when we say “Drop Everything and Read” or “It’s time for Read-to-Self”, they have their book in hand and do not have to waste time looking for what to read.
My mentor teacher has the books organized in sections and bins labeled by genres or holidays or authors. She also has a whole shelf behind her desk of different teacher books that have ideas and activities that she can use throughout the year, for example one of my favorites is her Kagan activity book. I have used ideas from this books various times throughout my internship.