Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

Trying to start..I am up to eyeballs in books..Bought the stickers and...
I have a book in my lap, It is J. I put two red dots on the front, wrote J/K on the back. Now where do the dots go and I write J on the front...Where??? UGH! Sorry but how do you write the letters on and where do the dots go exactly..thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am going into my 3rd year (tenure) and the principal has stressed she would like all libraries to be leveled...I work on Long Island and it is very lax in my building.
I wanted to do this but have no idea where to start. I have the books by genre and my AP has the Fontas and Pinell book...Are there any tricks for doing this?? I have spent hundreds on books and just always sorted them by genere..How do you keep your library sorted? I know in the city leveling is required...anyone have any tips?? I am going in next week to start the task, does it take long to do?
Thanks for any help!!!!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL SOON!!!

Message edited 8/22/2007 2:24:10 PM.

Re: Leveling Library

tell your principal that you want to be paid for the week it will take you to level your library! its going to be a pain and take a while. not all of the book sare in the F&P book, so sometimes I will google them and see if the levels come up. sometimes you just eyeball them. it is truly a pain! we write the letter on theback cover in sharpie.

i teach fourth grade. i have levels a-d together, e-i together, j and k together, and then each level up to T has its own basket of two. TUV are together.

i have some books by genre and some by author.

good luck!

Re: Leveling Library

When the Mayor's Library was first started, we would get books AND a packet of the books we received with the levels. So we would look up the books in the packet, then write the levels inside the books (or where ever the teacher wanted to write the levels).

As I have bought or received books through the years, I check the levels in the Fountas and Pinnell. The books are listed alphabetically. It is a time consuming process, and all the books cannot be done at once, so I have my class monitors do them throughout the school year.

Any books that I cannot find to be leveled, or I have enough of, are grouped by genre or series, i.e. Magic Tree House, Dr. Seuss, Frog and Toad, Dinosaurs.

My advice is to use the F and P first. If your AP only has 1 copy, and there are many of you doing this, ask if your AP can get more copies of the F and P. It takes a looong time.

Re: Leveling Library

Not to scare you, but this is going to take awhile. I would def. get the fontas and pinnell leveled reading book. Also, you can check on scholastic for some books, just search the book and it may tell you the level.

Is there anyway you can have older students as helpers, and have them do some of it for you?

Re: Leveling Library

Good luck it will take a while
your principal cannot expect this to be done in a few hours it might take a few weeks

I use the fontas and pinnell leveled reading book a lot

but I also eyeball them too

Re: Leveling Library

Oh man, this was tough. Basically, last year, I put books on my tables for the kids to read. I then spent about an hour every day after school, some lunches and some preps and went though everything. I grouped NF first. Ocean, space, insects, dinosaurs, etc. Then I sorted out picture books. I did paper back and hardcover and seperated those. Then I did chapter books. There are some that I sorted by series (cam jansen, geronimno stilton, magic tree house, magic school bus, junie b, horrible harry, polk street school, etc. ) I then tried to locate their level. Then I went through the rest of my chapter books and broke them down into easy, okay, harder, advanced readers. THEN, I went through my crappy leveling book (I also had my monitors do this, too) and sorted them by levels. It was a beyotch, but it got done and when it was over, my library was awesome.

Whenever I would get new books, before they were put on the shelves, they were appropriately leveled, too.

Once it is leveled, make sure you hae a good system for keeping it that way. For me, I have a book return basket and 'librarians' who empty the basket every day.


Good luck.


ETA: Also, I did have the kids help, too. When it came to non fiction, i had one table look for a specific category, like dinosuars. then they searched for those books and put them on their table. They did the work, too.

Message edited 8/16/2007 1:41:23 PM.

Re: Leveling Library

Use fontas and pinnell to help you level. But... dont feel like you have to level everything... you should STILL have lots of book in bins by genre! I have 2 sections in my library.... One leveled with the letter on the front corner of the book. and then the rest is sorted by type or genre (fairy tales, animals, math...)

Re: Leveling Library

Message edited 8/16/2007 1:49:24 PM.

Re: Leveling Library

Posted by SupportACop

Posted by JMF

Use fontas and pinnell to help you level. But... dont feel like you have to level everything... you should STILL have lots of book in bins by genre! I have 2 sections in my library.... One leveled with the letter on the front corner of the book. and then the rest is sorted by type or genre (fairy tales, animals, math...)

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE INFO!! This is great!! So you level most books but keep some by genere. Like I am a big penguin freak in the winter and do a whole thematic cross curricular unit on this...do I level my penguin books or just keep it in the one bin labeled penguin book...thanks for the help!
I just called my school and they are redoing the whole building...I can't get in until the last week of Aug....OMG I have always been able to get in throughout the summer, now I can't go next week but will start it as much as I can and will give myself a deadline of parent teacher conferences, NOV 6 to be done with the library.

Re: Leveling Library

Bribe your literacy coach to do it!

Re: Leveling Library

i agree with all the pp!

Leveling is a PITA if you are just starting. We do F and P, ,but we only level out Guided Reading books, which are not in the bins that are in the reading area.
We have our books by author, series, topic or genre. I have also created some bins like "Challenging" or "Easier Reads". I would definitely use the F and P book to help. You can also go online and check the level with a more updated F and P list. (I am not sure if you need to pay for this. We have it at school.)

Re: Leveling Library

My NYC principal pays us to come in and level our libraries, and each others. You should get paid. Also search online. We use some site online, I wish I knew, to level most books.

Re: Leveling Library

Re: Leveling Library

Re: Leveling Library

Re: Leveling Library

I coordinate my book level and the color bin I put it on.

Level a/b book-red sticker on book-goes in red basket... And so on...

Also-Scholastic has these to help organize the books that are not leveled by fountas and pinnel.

Image Attachment(s):

Re: Leveling Library

So I got all the book today..I had to get into my school and they were doing work on it. Load up a giant cart three times to the car. I will be leveling them next week.
My friend who came from the city said they only level 70% now. Is this true? I have to go to staples and buy the stickers...I need red, green, blue, right????????? Thanks so much for all the great help ladies! It is so appreciated...Looks like I will be busy next week!!

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

Bump for help!!! PLEASE!

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

I would just put the J on the front cover. For now, just skim the books and put the correct color of the general dot ..for example.. ijk I believe are yellow..on them. Then, throughout the year you can put the letter onto the colored dot.

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

Ok thanks! J is red no?
I put 2 red dots upper right on the front of the book. Wrote a big J on the top right above the red dots, J/K on back top left. In the two red dots on front I wrote J. Does this sound right??? THANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

Thanks! This is going to take forever...another quickie..I have books I cannot find a letter for, what do you do? How can you find it?
ex: Saturday Mornings by Joelie Hancock. How would I find it???
THANKS ALL FOR YOUR HELP! I will be here until school starts, but the helps is greatly appreciated!!

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

I still have a pile of books that I have no clue how you find them..do you just eyeball the book and place it where you think it should go? TIA, this is hard when you are stuck on so many unclassifiable books.

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

Are you asking where the stickers go??? If so, I put the level of the book somewhere on the back cover. Not sure if this is what you are asking though.

Re: Leveling Library..HELP QUICK Question..

When you don't find the title of a book in F and P just eyeball it. Take an educated guess as to what level it is. I assure you that no administrator will come in to check that all your books are exactly right. You sound as stressed as I was the first time I had to do this. Trust me, it is not worth all the time stress and anxiety thid is doing to you. If you just give a couplr of responsible students some time to help you when school starts, they will befinished in no time. (and they'll likely have more fun than you will doing it
Then all you'll have left to do are the ones not in the book. Follow my advice that I just gave you with those and it will go quick.

Good Luck!!