Blog Archives

Why Not Dewey?

12/31/2023

I first became a school librarian in the 2019 - 2020 school year. In the second week of March, 2020, I celebrated a birthday, found out I passed my state school librarian license exam, and our elementary team took first place in our district's Battle of the Bluebonnets competition. Then we left for spring break, and we never came back to in-person learning that school year.

Already Genrefied
However, in July of 2019, I didn't see COVID coming. I inherited a beautiful library space with an almost-new collection on a campus that was only three years old. The prior librarian was ahead of her time, and genrefied the nonfiction section of the elementary library, which served over 800 students. This nonfiction organization generated a lot of discussion for adults, but it was familiar to the kids, who knew where to find biographies and books about dinosaurs. Shelving nonfiction was easy for the library assistant (I was so lucky to have one!) and volunteers, since books with matching stickers went together on a shelf, without worrying about decimal order, and signage was clear.

Most students, for a variety of reasons, were browsers and not catalog users (we were working to build that capacity). We were fortunate to have plenty of electronic databases for research, but our nonfiction print books were also updated and all in good condition. The main downside was when someone - usually an adult - came in looking for a particular book that happened to belong to a large section - like general animals - that took up two or three shelves. In those cases, it could take longer to locate a specific book than it would if it were shelved by the decimal.

I was encouraged to switch back to Dewey, mostly because the other elementary schools were organized that way, and it was thought to be good preparation for elementary students to encounter the same Dewey organization at their middle schools. Further, our nonfiction circulation was not greater than other schools, which had been a key argument to the set-up in the first place. So in December of 2019, with generous help from adult volunteers, we moved the books "back" into Dewey order.

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24 in 2024 Reading Challenge

12/30/2023

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Looking for a reading challenge menu for yourself or your students? You're welcome to try this one to kick off a great year of reading in 2024. Happy Reading!

Image created in Canva

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Maker Stations in the Middle School Library

12/29/2023

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I've worked in a STEAM-centered elementary school library and a traditional middle school campus library, and I often see questions from librarians about which materials to buy to support makerspace initiatives, so this post is my response to that question.

Scheduling Time
With a flexible elementary schedule, I was able to schedule weekly class visits for library read-alouds and check-out, and reserve either full or half-days for flex maker visits each week. These could be based on teacher sign-ups, where they bring the whole class, or it could involve a few students from multiple classes visiting without their teachers. On a fixed schedule, there would be more time for each class to explore the maker stations, but without time between classes, it's more difficult to change out the stations and materials if very young and older elementary classes are back to back.

My favorite thing in elementary school was student-led maker workshops, where older students led select activities, and a whole class of younger students visited with the classroom teacher, who broke the students into small groups based on interest to visit those maker stations. It was a great experience for a very large school, because it helped students get to know each other, it built confidence and leadership capacity in older students, and it exposed younger students to a variety of different types of activities, so that when they encountered them as library stations, they were better able to use those materials. However, this was complicated to schedule, as it involved pulling the older students and the younger students at times when their classes were available, and emailing reminders to multiple people, and setting up lots of different materials in advance.

In middle school, stations do not have to change drastically, because 6th graders can access the same equipment 8th graders can access (unlike in elementary school, where some supplies need to be changed out for 1st graders vs. 4th graders, for example). So maker stations can be out for library classes (it works really well leading up to a vacation break when students and teachers are exhausted and overwhelmed with demands), or part of a library club activity, reading challenge celebration, or before or after school in the library.

What to Include in Maker Stations
Logistically, I prefer to have too many stations per class, because I would always rather have extra room to spread people out than have too many people at a station, which means some people are waiting to use materials and have time to get off-task. I want everyone to be creating and busy, so having many options spread out across the space is helpful.

It is okay to repeat stations around the room, but if I plan to rotate groups left to right, I make sure I don't have the same materials at stations right next to each other so students get to try different things. Generally, middle school students can be free to visit any station and move from place to place as needed, with three guidelines:

1) All materials at the station stay there, on the table at that station
2) Only 4 people per station at a time
3) If you move to a different station, clean up everything before you move

I also walk whole classes through all of the station options (while they are seated away from the materials) before they choose where to start.

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Perler Beads, Part Two

12/28/2023

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This school year, I moved to a middle school library position, in a school with over 1100 students. I had to start over collecting materials and building capacity for makerspace stations, but since older students typically have better fine motor skills and are generally more independent, I've been able to get it up and running faster than I initially could in an elementary school.. Take a look at my earlier post about using Perler beads for an overview about what to buy and why to use these in the library.

Seven finished fuse bead projects by students, including a cat, an elephant, and a star

Finished student Perler bead projects

This time, I didn't have as many parent volunteers wanting to hang around to help iron the projects, and I wasn't quite ready to turn it over to student volunteers, so I did the ironing myself. I wanted to add a few notes of advice to anybody out there who wants to add this to your library space. It might seem like a lot of detail, but if it saves you some trial and error, that's excellent.

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Why Not Dewey?

24 in 2024 Reading Challenge

Maker Stations in the Middle School Library

Perler Beads, Part Two

Jamie Wright

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Archives

Alphabetical List of Book Recommendations
Book Recommendations by Topic
Book Recommendations by Grade Level
Picture Books for Lessons
Middle School Book Talk Videos
Blog Posts about Reading Instruction

© 2017 - 2025 - Ideas for Learners by Jamie Wright

Why Not Dewey?

24 in 2024 Reading Challenge

Maker Stations in the Middle School Library

Perler Beads, Part Two

Jamie Wright

Categories

Archives

Alphabetical List of Book RecommendationsBook Recommendations by TopicBook Recommendations by Grade LevelPicture Books for LessonsMiddle School Book Talk VideosBlog Posts about Reading Instruction

© 2017 - 2025 - Ideas for Learners by Jamie Wright

Alphabetical List of Book Recommendations
Book Recommendations by Topic
Book Recommendations by Grade Level
Picture Books for Lessons
Middle School Book Talk Videos
Blog Posts about Reading Instruction