Library Centers FAQ
Thank you so much for the compliments, comments and questions about library centers that you’ve been sending me! I love to hear about YOUR school libraries!
Because I’ve had the same questions asked often, I’m setting up this page so that, if you have the same question, you won’t have to wait for an email response to get an answer. If this doesn’t answer your concern, use the comment form at the bottom of the page, and give me a day or two to get back to you.(Unless I’m in the midst of book fair or an author visit, and then it might be a little bit longer!)
Question: Thank you for your great ideas and I’m looking forward to your book. When is your book coming out? I would love to buy it and incorporate some of your ideas in my library.
Answer: My book, The Centered School Library, is now available online from Upstart. It provides complete instruction for 12 different library skills centers, each with several variations, literature connections, and links to whole-group lesson ideas. These library centers are simple and work with multiple grade levels.
Question: Your site has been a treasure of a find for me. Perhaps you could help figure out the answer to this question…do you allow the students to choose a center more than once or do you change them each time they visit?
Answer: At my school library, each class visits once per week as a group to check out books. I change my library centers every Friday afternoon so that they will be new for every class visit.
During the week I plan and gather my materials so that I can make the switch pretty quickly after school gets out on Friday. Occasionally a center stays for more than a week. For example, when we were working on the Wimpy Kid 200-piece puzzle, it took us all of two weeks to finish it.
Question: How much time do you have for centers? Do you do a story first then centers and checkout? How long do you have your classes when you do centers and do you also do checkout during this time?
Answer: As I said, at the school I’m in now, each class visits for 20 minutes, once per week to check out books. I begin our time with a 2-3 minute mini-lesson, which might be an introduction to a new library center. Then the students who can’t check out (forgot their books, lost a book) go straight to centers. The rest of the students check out their books first, then go to a center until it’s time to leave.
I’ve also used centers at a fourth and fifth grade campus of about 400 when I was on the “specials” rotation and had every class for 45 minutes once a week. On that schedule, I taught a 15-20 minute lesson first (read-aloud, Dewey scavenger hunt, online databases, etc.) and then students went either to centers or checkout, then centers.
Question: I had a problem with switching the centers for each grade that came in next (I have 5th then 2nd back-to-back so very time-consuming). Anyways, my question is this: do you have the same center topics for each grade and just change the level/difficulty of the work?
Answer: I do NOT change centers for different grade levels. That would be way too much work! Like all of you, I have a busy day with all different grade levels in and out of the library.
I try to design each center to be multilevel, 1st through 5th grade. I do a whole different activity with my kindergarteners. For example, if the activity is observing an animal, 1st through 5th can do this, but I would expect the 5th graders to write higher-level observations.
In the puzzle center, the 5th graders like being able to assemble a 24-piece puzzle before they leave, while the 1st graders may only fit a few pieces in during their library time. I do dis-assemble completed puzzles in between class visits, so that more students get the satisfaction of completing it.
Listening center is loved by all ages. I think the fourth and fifth graders get a kick out of it because no one reads aloud to them any more. All age levels can press “play” and “stop” buttons.
If a center is too easy or too hard for a particular student, he or she just moves on to another. That’s how it works for me!
Question: Do you use different topics for each grade depending on what their teachers are teaching that month?
Answer: As I said above, I do NOT change library centers for each grade level. But, often more than one grade level is studying the same science topic (like soil) at the same time. I look at the pacing guides for our classroom teachers, and when I see that happen, I try to design a center for that topic, to reinforce classroom instruction.
Question:When I’ve brought up the idea of using library centers with the teachers in the upper grades, many of them ask me,”but how/when will my kids learn how to do research?” Have you encountered this situation at all, or is your library media curriculum not heavily centered around research projects?
As you know, a research project is made up of many skills. You might, for example, introduce your subscription databases to your students by direct instruction, then create a library center with a trivia question contest to let them practice that skill. The library centers allow you to provide your students with additional practice in the skills you are teaching them.
Those huge projects can be broken down into smaller components, and centers can provide independent practice in those skills. To me, that’s a better way to do research, in small steps, allowing the new skills to be learned and practiced, instead of doing one huge research project for a couple of weeks, then ignoring it the rest of the year. You can use library centers to practice those component skills, and show that they can be applied in other contexts.
If you have more questions, comments, or ideas to share, please contact me with a comment! I would be glad to smooth the way for learning centers in YOUR library!
Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom! I think using library centers may just be a life-saver for me this year! I am in a K-4 school, on rotation schedule and this year I will be seeing each class for 1 hour each week. I keep telling myself – I CAN do this!
You CAN do this, Antoinette! I’m glad you found the getting started page. That should get you going. Make sure you follow the blog so you keep getting more ideas all year. I would NOT want to have a library class for an hour without library centers!
Thanks for your comment!
I see classes every other week as I work at 2 schools. That means I see students twice a week. Do you think centers would work with the limited time I have with each class (30 minutes and some are back to back)?
Sheryl, check out this comment from I’m All Booked:
http://librarycenters.blogspot.com/2012/09/ereader-center-in-library.html?showComment=1348022964423#c2613923260491537909
She explains really well how she organizes her library centers for two 15-minute rotations per class!
Do your students select the center they want to visit
each library period or do you have them in groups and you make the choices for them? Also, do they remain at the same center the entire period or do they rotate centers?
My students select the center they want to visit. Because I’m not giving a grade on completing certain activities, I want them to have the freedom to choose the activity they find most engaging. Because I only see students for 20 minutes a week, including checkout, they typically only have time to participate in one center during each visit.
Thanks for your question!
Hello. Thanks for the site. What do you do if most students never visit the center related to your lesson (e.g you set up pocket charts to practice a fiction lesson on alphabetical sorting) and they generally do not choose to go there. For instance, they avoid that center because the other ones are more fun.
I love you blog and also purchased your book. This is my second year as our school’s librarian and I am still settling in the position. I am wondering about your lesson plans. I can create my own and curious what your contain. For example, with your reading is sweet centers…do your group lessons or read aloud match your theme? Thanks so much for all your wonderful ideas.
Thanks for the encouraging words! I am at a school with a flex library schedule. For me, that means that although every class comes to the library once a week for checkout, lessons are scheduled only when a classroom teacher and I get together and plan a collaborative lesson. That means that many of my lessons are the research projects for each grade level, or lessons correlated to the classroom curriculum. For example, I created our poetry picnic when a third grade teacher wanted to do something fun to introduce her students to poetry. I read aloud to kinder and preK every week, and I match those read-alouds to the classroom curriculum for the week. I also try to tie my centers to what is going on in the classrooms. If I was on a fixed schedule and teaching my own library curriculum, I would definitely have centers and decorations tied to what I was teaching. I do kindof miss that….
Did I answer your question?
Cari
I’m a middle school librarian – and I love your ideas. I didn’t realize that I was already doing centers. I put together a game table. Students work on puzzles and play chess or checkers. They love it! I also have a nice seating area with lots of magazines. I love your ideas and am thinking of ways to incorporate them into middle school. They need just as much interaction and stimulation!
That is great! It makes the library environment more engaging, doesn’t it?
I have people ask me all the time about centers in the middle school library. If you decide to start blogging, let me know so I can add a link!
Cari
I purchased your book and have been “studying” it. I’m very excited about the new school year and using centers in the Library. How do you handle issues, arguments, discipline while students are in centers?
Hi Sheila! I’m delighted that you are diving in to library centers! One of the great things about centers is that students who are engaged in a learning center do not (typically) argue or cause discipline problems. The atmosphere of your library will change when all students can find an activity where they can choose, move around, learn and talk, all at the same time.
I do have a library assistant who checks out books so that I can walk around the centers and help the students. If I did not have an assistant, I would train some students to check out books so that I could stay close to the centers and nip any problems in the bud. Sometimes students do need help solving a problem, like untangling headphones at the listening center, or figuring out how to take turns in a game.
If someone is just having a bad day and not able to treat others respectfully, that person would lose the privilege of participating in library centers and would get to sit by the door, waiting for library time to be over. This happened maybe twice in the school year, and was typically caused by a problem carried over into library time.
Does that answer your question?
Cari
Thank you for sharing! I get so many ideas from your blog. I have been trying to figure out how to begin library centers, so I appreciate your help. I need to order your book. I was glad to see your post that you have the same centers for all grade levels, that was one of my questions. However, if you have the same centers, are you able to repeat them next year? Do the students say they did that last year? I know we are always changing but there are some that I might like to use again.
I am just getting ready to order your book and I am very excited. This is going to be wonderful reading for over Christmas break and I will be ready to implement many of the new things I will learn when school returns in January!
Thanks, Kristin! I’ll be putting your book in the mail to you tomorrow. I think you’ll love how library centers engage all of your students!
I just switched from a High School library to elementary, and am struggling with Kindergarten especially. I saw above that you do something totally different with your K students. What do you generally do with them if not the centers? I have my kids for 50 min per grade level each week.
I was wondering if you have a problem with all of the kids wanting to go to the same center or if every week the same kids only go to the same center. If so how do you encourage them to try out something else?
If a center is super popular, I keep it up for several weeks to give everyone a chance to participate. Or I double up on that center, and set it up at 2 tables so more students can participate each week.
I try to make every center appealing, and I try to have a variety of centers to appeal to different learning styles.
I want to allow students free choice, and I don’t want to spend time “managing” center participation. I do post a “limit 4 students” sign up, so that students know that the fifth student needs to choose something else.
Thanks for your question, Stacy!