Organizing Your Classroom Library by Genre

Organizing Your Classroom Library

We recently posted about classroom libraries and how to fund them. You must be wondering how you’re going to organize all those new books now that you have them! Before delving deep into a Pinterest spiral, let us help you by sharing our tried and true method for organizing our classroom libraries.

We know you have seen the beautiful class libraries organized by author or Lexile Level. There might even be some pretty plastic tubs that line the bookshelves of said libraries. They’re gorgeous right? If that is your library, we applaud you and your commitment. Job well done, teacher friend! However, if you are like us, and your classroom library is full to bursting with books, or even if you’re just starting out and you only have a few, one way to guarantee kids will be checking out books is to organize your books by genre. 

I used to organize my library by author’s last name. Let me tell you, it became a weekly chore to reorganize all of my library books. I was constantly having to remove and move books that were shelved in the wrong place. It bothered me to no end. Major face palm. This is when Denise stepped in and changed my life. She recommended that I reorganize my classroom library by genre to save me time and my ever loving sanity.

Kids are drawn to what they like. By organizing your classroom library by genre, kids have a better chance of finding even more new books, authors, or series to read. This is because the books are housed on the same shelves as their favorites. 

By organizing your books by genre, you have set up a sure fire way to keep your students reading. Organizing your books by genre also helps to keep your classroom library clean and tidy. Gone are the days where you are consistently restocking books in their proper places. Once you designate a shelf or shelves by genre, who cares where they go, as long as it is on that shelve.

Genres to consider when setting up your class library:

Classics

Realistic Fiction

Non Fiction

Historical Fiction

Mystery

Adventure

Romance

Humor

Science Fiction

Fantasy

Supernatural

Dystopian

Graphic Novels

Poetry

Short Stories 

Animals

Sports

One tip I would give is to start a checkout system now before you start adding all of your books to their shelves. You will thank us in the end. I like to use the Classroom Organizer by Booksource. I also downloaded the free app on my phone to scan all of my books into the system as I was organizing my library. Did it take forever? You bet! But, if I were to do it again, I would have some trustworthy students do it for me…there are plenty of kids trying to get volunteer hours - find those kids and have them scan away!

So teacher friends, let us know how you organize your classroom library. If you decide to reorganize your library by genre, take some pictures and share them with us on our Instagram or Twitter pages. 

Bottoms Up!