Leveling Your Classroom Library

Books, books, and more books.

I didn't think I had that many books in my classroom library. I mean I've only been teaching for 3 years.

Well, that was until I took on the task of leveling each and every last book that consumed 18 book bins.

Here's my journey:

When I started off I was excited!

Last year I decided I had it with students picking books they couldn't read...and pretending to read them.

Fake reading. I knew the perfect solution would be leveling my class library by DRA level.

So I emptied my library (picture above) and hauled the books home basket at a time.

Note: this took several trips! Eek!

My first challenge was finding a database to search for each title.

I turned to IG and found some great ideas, some from you!

I ended up using 2 main sources.

Scholastic Book Wizard (app and website)

Level It (app)

The scanning adventure began.

I successfully unsuccessfully found almost every book.

And this is when I began to get frustrated and tired.

 I may have started guessing since not every book was in either database. 

Yes, I did "guesstimate" levels for maybe one-fourth of my class library.

I also started to make categories for similar books that were either too hard or did not show up.

Example categories:

Non-Fiction

Animal Characters

People

Dr. Seuss

Once all sorted out into levels or categories, each got a corresponding sticker on the front cover.

This is how the students will tell where to return the book when they are book shopping.

To finish off this massive overhaul, I relabeled each book bin with the DRA levels...

... put the books inside...

...and BOOM, done!

It may have taken all summer but I am one excited teacher again!