This page explains my class schedule in greater detail. It will help you understand how I’ve structured my elementary library lesson plans.
I work in a K-5 elementary school that operates on a fixed schedule. I teach Library Skills classes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and every other Friday (which is a repeat of either Tuesday’s or Thursday’s schedule). So essentially, I see each homeroom for library skills five times in a typical month. Classrooms visit the library to check out books on Mondays and Wednesdays.
When I see classes on Fridays, we usually read either silently (grades 3-5) or with partners (grades K-2) and take Accelerated Reader tests for the entire class time. Elementary students have very few opportunities in today’s assessment driven schools to simply read for pleasure, so I always include reading in my library curriculum.
I see each homeroom for 35 minutes, which amounts to about 30 minutes after you get everyone settled down and leave time to line them up in an orderly fashion at the end of class.
My favorite way to teach my library lessons is to use stations. I divide students into three teams at the beginning of the school year or semester. I have 9 student computers in my library, so each group has no more than 9 students in it. When I have a class with more than 27 students, I just let 2 students work on a computer together or I allow a trustworthy student to use one of my teacher stations.
My library lesson plans will include 3 main activities for each month. I use these activities in my stations. Instead of rotating to each station during a single class session, we rotate each week. This way, each group gets a full 30 minutes in a station.
So this is what a typical month’s library visits might look like:
Week 1: Skill overview in whole group
Week 2: Station #1
Week 3: Station #2
Week 4: Station #3
Extra Friday Class: Silent/Partner Reading
It is not necessary to organize your class this way to use my library lesson plans, but it may be helpful. You can always modify the activities to work in a whole group setting if you prefer. Click here for further explanation on my stations.
I have organized my elementary library lesson plans by month and week. Our students always return to school in early August, but you can modify the plans as necessary if you start school later. Have a great school year!