Re: [LM_NET] classification of Easy books

[Barbara Paciotti <barupa@SWBELL.NET>]

As a middle school librarian I have 2 considerations about labeling easy 
fiction books: avoiding embarassment to students and expediting book 
selection during library visits. The first consideration is obvious to 
all of us, the second is specific to my school--our Language Arts 
teachers require kids to have books of at least 100 pages for their DEAR 
time reading.

I solved this problem by putting all the easy & under 100pg books into a 
separate section called Quick-Reads. The section includes all shorter 
books from Magic Tree House books, to state elementary reading list 
books (Bluebonnets), to classic short stories that have been bound as 
single books, such as Steinbeck, Twain, and Tolstoy. I did not change 
the spine label itself, however, each book carries a blue/white library 
symbol sticker under the label and its special shelving location is 
indicated in the OPAC.

I promote the section to ESL and Special Ed and also to 6th graders when 
they first come into the library for orientation and the section has 
been very successful. It allows struggling readers (and anyone else) to 
choose books that they can read quickly without the stigma of "Easy" on 
the label (some of the books had E on the label & I did change those 
labels to FIC). Some of the struggling readers in regular classes 
particularly like the section, and often choose a regular Fiction book 
for their required DEAR time reading and then 1 or 2 Quick-Reads for 
personal reading. I have also done the same thing with some short 
biographies, calling them Quick-Bios, and ESL kids have especially 
enjoyed those.

Barbara Paciotti, SLMIS
Barbara Bush MS, Irving TX

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