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Below is a message from a colleague in my district who just found out that the language arts department not only wants us to label books on the spine with lexile numbers (ain't happenin') but also wants to start classroom libraries. Are you starting to get (or have you already gotten) this kind of drift from language arts departments? We've really been working on getting more students to read, have beefed up our fiction collection, my colleague has done double- and triple-fold books talks, I've been a big booster of the literary society both in the media center and on the Web page - but our district feels too many students do not (cannot) read and this process of classroom libraries with teacher's guides seems to me absolutely the wrong direction. I would rather buy (some) duplicate copies of books and circulate them through the media center if that is what it would take for us to remain in this reading loop. Thoughts or suggestions? Floyd [Below is an edited version of the original message]------------------------------ All, The language arts department chair just approached me about a conversation the district level Language Arts department is having about independent reading and lexile levels. The chair would love to see in the secondary school LMCs, what the elementary LMCs do, which is label books with certain lexile levels. She asked if that would be a possibility. . . I explained to her why, from a librarian's perspective, that would be horrible. She understood and asked if we could brainstorm. >From my five minute conversation with her, I surmised that the chair wants to get away from teaching whole class novels and encouraging more independent choice. The hitch is that there should be a common theme/topic/element/something and the kids would be restricted to a lexile range. Here's what her ideal would be; to have multiple sets of five copies per title with a teacher resource guide per title. These would be kept in the classroom. Here's what I suggested we could do; create book lists that would be based around a common whatever and the lexile range which they request. She thought that would be good, but wanted to make sure there would be at least 40 titles per book list. Here's where the brainstorming comes in; she'd like to hear what other ideas we have in answer to this problem and she would also like to know what commonalities we could come up with such as theme, topic, etc. I offered to meet with the group the next time they got together and the department chair was very receptive to that. Please send any suggestions my way and I'll share them with the group. --------------------------------------------------------------- Floyd Pentlin, Library Media Specialist Lee's Summit North HS, 901 Douglas, Lee's Summit, MO 64086 VOICE 816.986.3027 - FAX 816.986.3171 EMAIL floyd.pentlin@leesummit.k12.mo.us WEB http://lsnhs.leesummit.k12.mo.us/fpentlin/lmcindex.htm --------------------------------------------------------------- "Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again." --------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/el-announce/ LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html --------------------------------------------------------------------