This issue goes beyond spending money on a book room. Several of these
literacy collaborative inititives completely ignore the library as a
viable option. They encouratge schools to purchase large classroom
collections and want libraries to be in genre order. Teachers get stars
in their eyes when they get to spend money on these collections but
don't realize that overall it is not a good long term policy to develop
lifelong reading habits. When librarians bring up the obvious, like
classroom collections becoming stale and the obvious duplication, etc,
they become the bad guys. In the case of literacy collaborative
sponsored through Ohio State University the list they recommend takes
about 3000.00 per classroom to stock. Most elementary libarians don't
get that for their libraries for an entire elementary. They litracy
coordinator gets a substitute to collaborate with teachers and model
book talks, literacy circles, and book discussions. Raise your hand if
your prinicipal would get you a sub so you could model book talks and
reading discussions in the classroom. I guess what burns my britches is
that I was trained to do that. I already know how to do that. I went
to college to learn how to do that I don't need extra training so what
do I become chopped liver. Well, yes. Because our federal and state
legislators would rather spend extra money on a fad than fund and
utilize something that’s proven in a multitude of studies over the last
ten years.
Rebecca Vasilakis
District Library Media Specialist
Amanda Clearcreek LSD
Amanda, OH
becky_vasilakis@amanda.k12.oh.us
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Melissa Cavender
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 11:35 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Vent: Literacy coaches & Resources and libraries
With all due respect to underfunded libraries, a well-designed book room
serves a different purpose than the library. At the primary level, it is
for multiple copies of books to use to teach reading. The books are
usually soft cover and often (but not always) written for this purpose.
A school library has so much more than that.
I think the vent should be about not properly funding the library,
rather than regretting having a book room. As a former kindergarten and
first grade teacher, I know having access to multiple copies of leveled
readers was crucial to my students' success in learning to read. Now as
a librarian, I wouldnąt want to have to spend my budget on multiple
copies of books. Instead, I supported the teachers in having a book room
established for their use.
Regards,
Melissa Cavender
Melissa Cavender
Elementary Librarian
American School of Doha
P.O. Box 22090
Doha, Qatar
mcavender@asd.edu.qa
011-974-442-1377
Fax 011-974-442-0885
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