HUGE A.R. shelving debate!!

[cara delia]

I have a huge issue that I am trying to sort out.  I am a brand new librarian,in a k-5 school. I do not care for A.R., but it is has a very strong presence in my school.  The librarian that was there before me began by shelving books according to their A.R. level.  Several teachers asked me to continue the process throughout the library.  I can see the pros and cons of both, and decided that i would give it a try.  So, I've spent countless man hours sorting and pulling and reshelving books according to the color.  I did leave the non-fiction and the biography/poetry section by author.  Now, the delima comes when I went to my monthly Librarians meeting for the school district and told them what I was undertaking, and they reffered me to an article from DPI all about NOT sorting books according to color!  So my entire library is wrong???  Has anyone else shelved their books this way?  If so what type of response do you get from the students/teachers?  Does it pigeon hole the children into picking based on A.R. level?  Or do young children pick a book based on intrest anyway, and is this making it easier for them to pick a book they can understand and thus enjoy better?  HELP!

[Deana Miller]

My library was arranged similiar to this when I started last year. That was the first thing I changed. I do like AR, but I don't want kids to think that they can only read a book if it is AR.... The only ones I kept seperate are the ones for kindergarten and first grade. It was a lot of work to put them back with the rest of the books, but I'm glad I did!

[cara delia]

As much as it sounds amazing, every book in our library is A.R....so that aspect doesn't present a problem.

[Claudia Palframan]

How will shelving your books by AR levels help the students when they go to a public library? I also detest AR, and I am of the opinion that by shelving books by AR level you are sending the message that the only way to select reading material is by level. What about interest? Where's the challenge for the students to find something new and exciting? Too much emphasis on AR/reading levels and not enough of self selection, interest, exploration, learning about the world around them, etc, etc...

off my soap box now!

[cara delia]

I agree with this, however I do have to defend my decision by saying that non-fiction, biography, and world literature books were not touched and remain by call #. Secondly, I plan to alphabetize the books by color, so for example light blue etc. Thirdly, I am inhereting a library that had a substitute librarian for an entire year. I am trying to redo, or undo what mess she has made of the library. Lastly, the children aren't pigeon holed into only one section, it just makes it easier to find a book that they can comprehend. i know that children very rarely go to the library with a specific title in mind. they make choices based on the title, genre, or pictures of the book. What harm will it do them if I can direct them to a particular section of books that are within their reading range, rather than a book that will get shoved in the desk, and sit there until library day? I think that the the intrest level is not being taken away, just guided. We don't take an 8 yr old to a public library and let them check out a book on the history of sexual intercourse, because it's not appropriate, and not relevant. We direct them straight to the children's literature section. i do not detest AR, what I don't like is that teachers use it as a punishment or a grade, when it was intended as an incentive and a progressing measure. We use guidelines for everything in education. I guess I take my classroom teacher additude into the library by saying that it's not always about choice, but will help you succeed in reading, and I don't see how a boy in the first grade can succeed in reading if he checks out Harry Potter and looks at the pictures.

[cara delia]

I still defend my desicion. The children are allowed one "meat book" and one "free book" And the results of A.R. are not all bad, its when the system is misused that it becomes a "pigeon hole". For example, I would never say to a child you can only get a 2.7 level book. That would be ridiculous, however part of our requirements are to teach the children to make good book choices, and by allowing them free reign of the library I feel like I am not doing that. We have a relatively small library, All of the shelves for fiction are on one isle. The children honestly do not look at the levels as "low readers" or "high readers". I have actually had at least 7 children this year tell me that they like "their section", they know just where to find the series or books they like, that their teachers will approve of. Then they are able to browse anywhere in the library and get a "free book". So no, I don't agree with your statement that they are easily identified by a where they are browsing. This has also significantly reduced the amount of children returning with an unread book, or a book that their parents said was too high, or a book they found too difficult and therefore weren't interested. Our school doesn't take a punitive approach to A.R. instead we have contests and rewards for points. This has helped us get AYP in an area where out of 10 elementary schools, there were only 3 that made AYP, and the average income is about 20,000 a year. We have a majority of low readers, who need as much guidance as possible, and I think there should be a balance of free choice. Just because it is on their level, doesn't mean that it isn't high interest.

[Minerva Lazo]

I recently became a librarian at an elementary school and I inherited a library with this type of shelving. It is driving me absolutely crazy eventhough I understand why it was organized this way and the benefits of it. I decided to reorganize the library to a more traditional setting. I want my students to use the online catalog to find the books that they are searching for and having the books sorted the other way almost makes it impossible to find a specific book. It's alot of work to reorganize but I'm glad I'm doing it.

[Cheryl A. Strother]

I feel that when you tell a child what "color" they have to read you are denying them a chance to push themselves. You don't know where they are in that color - low, medium,high and you don't know what it will take to get them to that next level. I usually use the five finger test - they have to pick a random page and for every word they don't know or don't understand they have to put up one finger. If they get to the bottom of the page and they have three fingers up, I tell them that it might be a little tough but I think that they can do it. If they have four or five fingers up, I tell them that they aren't quite ready for this one yet but that I bet that they will be soon. That is something that is going to mean more than a color. Isn't making them read inside a color a form of censorship?

[Sue Kraus]

Don't even get me started at leveling books in this manner. The level does not take in account the complexity of the plot nor the maturity of the content. I think this is wrong, wrong, wrong. I can show you a picture book that has an 8th grade reading level and a YA novel with very mature content that has a 2nd grade reading level. Which would be more suited for an 8 year old? I think you are right to question setting up your library this way. The reading level is just one factor when choosing a book, and it bothers me when some teachers use it as the only reason to chose a book. I agree with Cheryl the five finger test is a good tool to use. Hope I didn't come off to strong, but boy do I have strong feelings about this. :-/

[cara delia]

Again, I think it benefits my patrons. I have had an awesome response from my children, the teachers, parents, even the vice principal commented, saying she thought it was much easier to find a book that would interest her two daughters. The five finger rule is an awesome self check, but for k-2 children who are begining patrons, the five finger rule (as much as you encourage it) doesn't really work. For instance I have as much as 30 chlildren in the library @ a time, just me, no assistant or aid. So it would be absolutely impossible for me to help them (and they do need help practicing this method). So the scenario is, they check out a book that is too hard/too easy and go to their classrooms. Later that afternoon they have to come back and exchange the book. Also they p0atrons have an average of about 5 mins to browse, get a book, and check it out, before I get a phone call from the homeroom teacher, or an assistant poking her head in to call them back. There just isn't enough time or man-power for me to individually help each kid. Our school is an A.R. supportive school not an A.R. punitive school. Meaning we have read the original purpose designed for the program and didn't read into it (children must only get their level, and must be graded on how many pts they acquire). There also needs to be a little bit of discretion amongst the Librarian as well. Meaning if I had a second grader who wanted to check out the inkheart series just because it was on his.her reading level I would question it, because I know the maturity level would be compromised.

[Karen McIntyre]

I solved this by placing colored dots on the spine --- and shelving according to standard procedures. It works and makes the time it takes to find a book at reading level minimal. I tell kids that they should pick one book at their reading level for "practice" -- at the lower levels this book doesn't need to be the best book they ever read -- It is just for practice. THEN they have more time to find a book -- just for the fun of it. This has worked for me --- it lifts the frustration about having to choose just within their reading level. That means that sometimes I have a 1st grader that checks out Harry Potter --- or carries around a giant dictionary --- Someone in my dim past taught me to call those "Carry" books --- that child needed to be seen in the company of Harry--- so be it. I do put pre-primer and 1st grade level fiction in one location because they move in and out so quickly.

My experience is that children have their own reasons for selecting a book -- often not based on rational "interests" at all...it is one of the mysteries of the universe. Your library is not wrong --- but if you want to encourage kids to find books using conventional practice shelving by color is not a good method --- follow your gut...on this one. One of the selling points for our libraries in this tough economic time is to be able to point to the fact that your library is "leveled" -- Almost all my books are AR so it really is not a problem --- to find an AR title....except as kids get older and do not progress they do feel bad about having to choose a practice book from an early level....

[Alice Sajdera]

We don't use accelerated reader, but we do use guided reading. There was an attempt years ago to arrange the books by level, but I countered with a plan to shelve fiction in format categories. This is a K-8 school, and I have 6 fiction sections!: Picture Books (E), Early Readers (R), Series Fiction (SF), Fiction (F), Graphic Novels (GF) and Young Adult (YA)

Two of these categories are NOT usually found in public libraries- the Series Fiction (Magic Tree House, A-Z Mysteries, Ivy & Bean etc.) and the Graphic Novels. I talk to the students about that when I teach them how to find things in the library. This has worked out well for me, teachers and for students.