With a large pair of scissors, Madison Elementary Principal Jeff Neumann cut the ribbon for the Book Room at the school at 8:15 a.m. today.
Once a storage room, literacy groups will start making use of the room immediately.
For the last two years, according to information provided by Title I teacher Karen Sproul, it was the hope of Madison staff to purchase more books to build the school's leveled library for first- and second-graders so the school can start literacy groups.Today, it became a reality with the opening of the book room for literacy groups. First-graders this morning began literacy groups with 16 small groups reading on their reading levels. Next week, second-graders start literacy groups.
The purpose of the leveled library is to enhance the reading curriculum for the first- and second-grade students at Madison. In order to do this, Madison was in need of a book room to provide resources for the primary grade students. The book room includes books ranging in reading levels from 1 to 50.
Warsaw Community Schools is moving toward a Balanced Literacy approach to teaching reading, according to the information. Balanced Literacy includes conducting literacy groups in the primary classrooms for 30 minutes each day. The groups allow small groups of three to five students to have more individual reading time on their instructional level.
Two years ago, when the Title I program returned to Madison, the school began purchasing books in sets of six, with the future goal in mind that literacy groups eventually would be started. The school has slowly been adding to the inventory of book levels to service all of its first- and second-grade students in Literacy Groups. This year, some higher leveled books were purchased.
At the start of this school year, all of the purchased books were housed in a construction trailer outside of the school building. Recognizing a need to move the books to a central location inside the building, Neumann authorized custodial staff to remove cupboards from a storage area for the bookshelves and book bins.
The book bins were purchased through Wal-Mart, and Wal-Mart donated a $50 gift card toward the purchase. Shelving was purchased at Lowe's, which gave the school a 20 percent discount for the shelving.
During summer 2008, Madison created and submitted a 90-second video for a Big Lots competition. The purpose of this video was to explain why Madison was in need of their grand prize, $10,000. The video was selected to be in the top 100 videos across the United States. Unfortunately, Madison did not win, but did receive a $100 gift card, which was used to purchase more bins.
With the ribbon cutting taken place today, the plan at Madison is to increase its library each year so that eventually it has a larger leveled library for the whole school of approximately 540 students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade.
Literacy groups at Madison will provide 30 minutes of reading in small groups ranging from three to five students. These reading groups will allow students to read on their own reading level and work on skills and strategies for reading and writing.
