Classroom/Library and Earl

[Barbara Wall <BWALL@OUBOCES.ORG>]

Hello all and Earl M.,

I think it important for us as librarians not to be threatened by teachers
keeping classroom libraries.  Anything that encourages our kids to pick up
a book ( or newspaper or magazine or even a comic book) and read will help
to improve their reading, spelling, comprehension and language arts skills.
Stephen Krashen makes this point very eloquently in his 1993 book The Power
of Reading.  We as librarians need to be sure we offer the best possible
collections we can with our resources  whatever they might be and that we
are responsive to teacher, curricular and student needs and desires (for
that free reading time that is so valuable and has to compete with TV,
video games and all that other stuff out there).  It was a classroom
collection kept by my 11th grade English teacher that taught me that
non-ficiton can be fun and enjoyable just like my favorite Perry Mason
mysteries were.   I would never have gone to the school library for this
reading material as it was a dreary place the librarian a dragon and in my
public library I only picked my favorite mystery authors.   Thanks in part
to that teacher I now usually have at least two books going - one fiction
and one non-fiction.  My two cents!

Hoping for only one more month of "real" winter,

Barbara

Barbara Wall
School Library System Coordinator
Orange-Ulster BOCES
Monroe, NY

bwall@ouboces.org

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