I want to thank all of your for your responses to my question about shelving
by AR level - you have given me many things to ponder. I have tried to save
everyone's response to this hit, but I received A LOT of feedback, so I
apologize if yours was accidentally left off the list. As a side note, I
had never considered re-shelving the non-fiction books, only the fiction and
yes, our catalog does reflect the AR level of the book and therefore its
location on the shelf.
I had many of you recommend a service called QuizList Interactive and I plan
to investigate this service. My one question to those of you who use it
is....after the kids look up their list, how do they then find their books
on the shelf? The examples that I was sent did not list a call number. If
I'm missing something obvious, I apologize. I see how useful the list can
be in helping kids find titles within their range, but I'm still wondering
how it helps them to physically find the book on the shelf?
Thank you again for your responses, this is such a great service and a
wonderful way to receive input from my colleagues!
--
Angie Woodson
Media Specialist
Van Buren Elementary
225 Shaw St., Plainfield, IN 46168
317-839-2575
awoodson@plainfield.k12.in.us
Four years ago when I came to the library where I work. The books were
shelved just as you described, by AR level. Since I was new I decided to
leave things as they were for that year. I purchased colored stickers from
Highsmith that correspond to the levels and put them on the books, so the
kids would get used to seeing the colored stickers.
Over the summer, all the AR books back into the traditional system. I did
this because I felt my one of my main jobs as a librarian was to teach
children how to look up books in our online catalog as they would need to
know how to do this in middle school and in other libraries.
The students did not take long to become accustomed to looking for the
colored labels and then checking the other label I had on the books which
told them the exact level (3.4, 5.3, etc.) I also created charts to put
around the library to show which stickers were what levels. And for those
students who wanted to get 3 3.5 books or books with 5.0 points (because I
do a store for points) I printed out 2 lists of the AR books by level and
points.
The children use the lists and then either look to see who the author is
and go to the fiction area because they know it is arranged by the author's
last name or use the catalog to see if its available and where it is
located.
I, too, had considered leaving the books shelved according to AR level but
I felt it was important for the students to learn how to locate books. As
public libraries and other schools they would attend do not have books
arranged that way.
And yes, it was a lot of work to reorganize, but I waited til summer and
then could take my time doing it.
Amy Bross
Oh, I don't know if you should pursue this shelving nightmare any
further. Think
of how much work it will be when you finally convince the teachers in your
school that the children should be able to READ, and read whatever they
want, and you want to go back to a more convenient system of author's last
name, first name. Peeling all those stickers off will be a nightmare in
itself! I'm afraid you are going to get many replies on this one telling
you to remember - reading improves reading, not reading at a certain level -
and it is not up to us to limit a child's choices in any way! Good luck
with your teaching staff. You will win them over eventually, but take it
slow! You will be a HERO with the kids once they leave the "comfort" of
being told what to read and they get to choose on their own! (Don't let my
signature mislead you! I've been in your situation as a media specialist,
as an aide and as a mother! It's tough, but you can help fix it!)
Sandy Hodges
SLIS Graduate Student
Indianapolis, IN
sandyhx4@aol.com
I think that is totally wrong. I put AR levels on the spines, but the only
books shelved separately are those below 1.9. I call these "Rookie Readers"
and do this only to help K-1 find AR books. If you want to shelve by AR,
you would somehow need to change your cataloguing. I am always asked by
children where they can find a certain book. If it is fiction, I often know
the author off the top of my head and can put my hand right on a book. If
they were filed by AR, I would have to look up every book, check the AR
level, and then locate the book. What a waste
of time! Also, are you teaching students the skills they need to locate
books in a "real" library?
Deborah Bobo
Media Specialist
St Andrews School of Math and Science
30 Chadwick Dr.
Charleston, SC 29407
Yes, it does make it easier for locating books on the children's reading
level. It's efficient. That's a good thing.
However, "AR" shelving is NOT the standard - Dewey for nonfiction and
fiction by author surname is, in nearly every school and public library, in
this country and nearly every one around the world (Sweden is one exception
- they have their own system). So, your students are not building a
transferable "Life Skill" - and every school library they move to (and
today's kids move frequently) will likely be different from yours.
Personally, I think that once having learned the Dewey system, a child
should be able to go into ANY school or public library and find what they
want relatively easily. If I want a book on the solar system, I go to the
520 shelves. If these books are instead filed by reading level, I go to my
"level" but perhaps there are no planet books there. Then where do I go?
If I am a librarian, and a teacher calls me and says please collect all the
tiger, lion, and cheetah books for her classroom use, and she's sending
students to pick them up in five minutes, I can go right to the 599.7s, and
pull them quickly. If they are by levels, I will have to print out a listing
and hunt for them. How useful is this for research? Can kids track down
books this way? If they need to go to the public library to supplement, how
will they find books there when they don't know Dewey? (And yes, I have
worked at a public library and occasionally had 6th grade students come in
and NOT KNOW how to locate a book by the Dewey number - one said his school
shelves by levels. . . ! He was embarrassed and I was embarrassed for him.)
Think about this: Do we want our students to feel comfortable in using the
library, any library, or confused and intimidated? Students from my school
are frequently reminded that if they check out a book from our nonfiction,
they can find more on the same topic at the public library by using the same
Dewey number, because IT'S THE SAME SYSTEM.
Back to the leveled library - What if the lion book on their "level"
doesn't cover the questions the teacher wants answered for their report? In
a standard Dewey arrangement, all the lion and "big cats" books on different
reading levels will be together, so the student has the option of checking a
higher or lower level book as well. And, despite the levels, it's possible
the child can locate the information s/he needs in one of them. A third
level reader might find a better body diagram or life cycle illustration in
a 2nd level book, for example.
Personally, I feel that arranging the library in AR is a loose form of
censorship. If children must always read "at their level" this may work to
facilitate a reading program, but is it the best over the long term for the
student? At the very least, I hope that your library policy allows them to
have at least one "Free choice" in addition to their AR reader. I wouldn't
change anything dramatically this year, but do think about this. Especially
think about that 6th grade boy I mentioned at the public library . . . how
will he find books next year in junior high? In high school?
You might be able to change shelving after they put on the color labels
with the levels. We have found those very helpful at our site. It's also
possible that this (leveled shelving) was a district-wide policy made by
administrators who are heavily vested in this program and see this
arrangement as efficient for running it. Teachers may feel that way too.
They are focused on this year, right now, getting reading scores (especially
comprehension) up. They may see the library as a "Facilitation Station" for
their reading program. They do not understand (or have forgotten) that a
library is a place for research (and LEARNING HOW to locate materials) as a
life skill as well as reading.
This is my 2 cent's worth. Feel free to add all or part of this message to
your "HIT" if you post one.
Joanne Ladewig, Library Media Technician (a.k.a. "Library Lady")
Lawrence Elementary School, GGUSD
Garden Grove, CA USA
shatz@verizon.net
I was in a school in Illinois that shelved in the manner you are
contemplating. I was in favor of programs like AR and Reading Counts before
but that experience made me do a 180 on the reading programs for incentives
issue. It was a K-8 public school in Illinois. (Did you go to IU?--I got
my MLS from the Bloomington campus in 01.) DO NOT do it. Here are my
reasons:
1. The school superintendent had decreed that AR scores be part of the
reading grade.
2. Teachers began relying solely on AR points instead of tying reading
to writing and, as a result, standardized test scores for writing
assessments began to fall.
3. Becoming so heavily vested into AR means that Renaissance Reading
is doing your collection development for you and choosing your books.
4. Many of the reading levels do not take content into consideration.
As a K-8 school, I had many books on low reading levels that were totally
inappropriate for elementary students who were capable of reading on those
levels. (Ex. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers is a 4 I think)
5. At that time (I understand it is a bit different now), there were
few tests for non-fiction books and so non-fiction books were rarely checked
out of that library. The reading that is REQUIRED in life is
non-fiction---instruction manuals, tax forms, etc. and our students were not
getting in any practice at reading non-fiction materials.
6. Students are not learning how to use a library properly, or perhaps
I should say a proper library.
7. There are no wide scale independent studies (not done by
Renaissance Reading) that support the effectiveness of AR on a long term
basis. It does improve reading motivation in the short term but the few
independent studies done indicate that it does not improve reading on a long
term basis..* McMillan, Mary Katherine. 1996. The effect of the
accelerated reader program on the reading comprehension and the reading
motivation of fourth-grade students. Ed.D. diss., University of
Houston.*
8. Many students cheat when the program is fully embraced. I even had
parents who snuck into school to try to check on their children's AR scores
so that their child would have the most points.
9. Many of my students repeatedly expressed to me that they were not
reading anything any more after they did not have to meet AR requirements.
This comment was coming most often from 6-8th grade boys.
10. There are multiple places to look for a title. You eventually
memorize AR levels but it is a pain in the neck for both shelving and
searching. Teachers do not like to have to look up books they want to use
by level and so you have to do it for them.
11. And finally, I heard from a teacher at my old school in
Illinoisrecently. They are abandoning the shelving by AR method this
year to return
to a traditional library shelving system as they have decided the long term
experiment (it was in effect about 8 years there) was a failure.
I am aware that many schools do shelve that way. I will never again work at
a school that insists on it.
Good Luck.
Cheryl Youse
am sorry to hear when AR rules the library... I find the concept very
disgusting. AR is in my school. I do not shelve books by level; instead, I
teach the students to use our OPAC that allows the students to search by AR
reading level. The training of how to locate anything in a library is a
necessary skill. Your students can not walk into a public library and find
books sorted by AR level. Life is much broader than AR. Color coding is a
privacy violation and unfortunately not enough libraries have been inspected
by accreditation agencies to stop this violation.
Sandy Scroggs
Home email sscroggs@satx.rr.com
Professional
Sandy Scroggs
Librarian Schenck ES
San Antonio, TX
sscroggs@saisd.net
The question of AR is a whole other ballgame, but the shelving
issue....................
One of the purposes of a school library is to teach students life-long
learning skills. Using a catalog and learning how to find books on the
shelves is one of these important skills. High school, university, public
and other libraries are not arranged by reading level. There are other ways
to mark AR levels and still maintain the integrity of the library system.
My 2 cents.
Jill Brown, LMS
Nardin Academy
Buffalo, NY
buflib@yahoo.com
How do you teach standard library arrangement and the Dewey Decimal subject
arrangement in your library? When students go to any other library, how are
books arranged? To be information literate, isn't it better practice to
arrange books in a school library consistent with the majority of libraries
students encounter outside of and after elementary school?
Bev Golden, Librarian
Canyon Ridge Elementary
San Antonio, TX
bgolden@satx.rr.com
I was in your position last year--entering a school very wrapped up in AR
and the books being shelved by level. Mine were actually by level and then
by points, so all the 1.1 books together with the .5 first. I hated it
especially when students asked for another book by the author they just read
because they don't all have the same level. After books were returned for
the year, my aide
and I rearranged so the books are in "proper" library order. Students are
able to search the OPAC by level, if they really need one for their teacher.
We also put the exact level and points on the spine, so kids can browse the
shelves if they want I'm trying to shift the focus of the library away from
AR--that's all the previous librarian did with the kids. I think it's
important for the kids to have the library set up like every other library
they are going to encounter. THe middle school
doesn't use AR, so this will make for an easier transition. Hope this
helps. GOod Luck.
Heidi Kaiven
Media Specialist
Brass Castle Elementary School
16 Castle St.
Washington, NJ 07882
908-689-1188 x.614
Our elementary school is also heavily into AR. We own more than 4000 quizzes
for a population of under 400 students. I would advise against shelving by
AR levels. Here's why: You have the responsibility of teaching students to
locate a book in the library. This is a skill needed regardless of what
school or library the student uses. If the collection is shelved by AR
level, an important opportunity is lost. Students miss learning about
standard library practice as far as shelving is concerned. They leave your
program with the inability to function in another library . Your
library curriculum is subverted. How do you teach locating a book by call
number when students know that in their library they find AR books a
different way? Selecting an AR book should reinforce your information
literacy curriculum and give students an opportunity to practice those
skills. Students need to be exposed to the entire library, not just the AR
collection. By inter-shelving AR books with the general collection,student
see other titles on the same topic that they might enjoy. Separating AR
books implies to students that they are the only "worthy" books in the
library. Your teachers will fight you to keep the shelving by level rather
than by standard library practice. Hold firm. You have responsibilities to
your students and their ability to function in a
library setting. We have resisted labeling our books with levels or with
colored dots (long advocated by Renaissance Learning). We put the level and
the point value of each title in our MARC record. Students learn keyword
searching as well as Boolean operators when they search
for AR titles. They learn to locate books by call number. They learn that
our library has many titles on the topic they're exploring. Other
possibilities are purchasing the AR Book Guide which will allow you to
customize it to reflect only the books you own that you have quizzes for.
You can add a call number field if you choose. You can also create a
database with Excel or AppleWorks that can be sorted by book level. By all
means work with your staff to support the AR program, but don't let it
relegate your information literacy responsibilities to the back burner. You
have an important role to play in your students' learning.
Suzanne Bramlett
Librarian
Anthony ISD
Anthony, TX 79821
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