I'm Back and Mentor Sentences

Wow!  I can't believe my last post was in June.  My goal was to post several times a week over the summer but that definitely didn't happen.  I'm not completely sure why, but I was very unmotivated to do much this summer.  There were many things that caused this lack of motivation, but that is the past.  Now I'm back and excited about the new things that are happening in my world.

The first bit of big news is that I am now teaching third grade.  I really can't explain how excited I am about this.  After teaching fifth grade for the last four years I am now back to my beloved third grade.  Fifth grade had its advantages, but my passion is working with kids that are a bit younger.  And I must say that I lucked out with my group of 22 students.  I am in love with my class and can't wait to continue their third grade journey as their teacher.

Now to the main purpose of this post...

I ventured into the world of mentor sentences.  I first read about mentor sentences last spring from Ideas by Jivey.  I made the decision then that I would give a try this year.  When I found out that I would be teaching third grade I questioned that decision, but after thinking about it this summer, I decided to jump in.  

I used a sentence from the book, Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes.  The sentence was Lilly's parents were amused when Julius blew a bubble.

I chose this sentence because of the plural noun and possessive noun.  I have already noticed that my students have been mixing up when to use the apostrophe and when not to.

On Monday when the students walked into the room I had them glue the sentence into their notebook.    Together we did the Invitation to Notice.  This is where they notice all of the elements that make this sentence worthy of being a mentor sentence.  This is what we came up with.

I was shocked that one of my students came up with the fact that blew was a homophone.  (He didn't actually use the word homophone but he explained what he meant.). If I hadn't introduced mentor sentences I wouldn't have known that he knew that.  My students have also found several other homophones over the last week which tells me that they are already connecting to what they are learning.

On Tuesday we did the Invitation to Notice-Parts of Speech.  I had the students copy the sentence in their notebook, skipping lines.  Today was very informative for me.  I realized that they knew vey little about the parts of speech.  In fact, they only really knew what nouns were so that is all we labeled this week.  This is what we did.

I will introduce the other parts of speech starting next week.

On Wednesday we did the Invitation to Revise.  I spent some time explaining what it meant to revise.  I don't think many of my scholars had heard the word revise before.  I showed them my example.

Overall I was satisfied with what they came up with.  Most of them just added an adjective to describe the bubbles but that works for me for now.

On Thursday, we had the Invitation to Imitate.  I spent some time explaining what it meant to imitate and that writers imitate others all the time.  I showed them my examples.

We talked about what parts of the sentence was imitated and then I had them get started.  I was very nervous of what they would come up with, but I was extremely surprised by what they came up with.  I checked them as they finished and selected four of the best ones and had them write them on sentence strips. 

Then I hung them and the mentor sentence in our classroom window.

On Friday, I gave them an assessment where they had to correct the sentence and then circle the nouns in other sentences from the book since we focused on nouns this week. We completed this first assessment together so that they knew exactly what I expected.

I can't believe how well my first attempt at mentor sentences went.  I'm excited to see the growth of my students as we venture further into our mentor sentences.  

You can learn more about mentor sentences from Jivey here.   

Tried It Tuesday: Easy Data Collection

Today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for her weekly Tried it Tuesday linky party with a great way to review content and collect data all at the same time.

About a month ago I came across this blog on Pinterest. In the post, Tonya at Tonya's Treats for Teachers explained how she had her students create the data tracker while they reviewed a test.

I immediately fell in love with the idea so I tried it last week. I decided to try it while my class was playing a game to review for our geometry unit.

This is how it works.
1. I made and printed strips of paper numbered 1-24. Making the strips was simple. I just created a table in Microsoft Word then cut it into strips.

2. I passed out the strips to my students and asked them to write their initials in the first space.

3. We started our review. The questions were on the smartboard and students wrote their answers on small dry erase boards. I gave them a couple of minutes to write their answers and then they held up their boards to reveal their answers. Once answers were revealed, we discussed the question and I then gave the correct answer.

4. If students got the answer wrong, they were asked to color in the corresponding rectangle.

5. When we were finished, I collected the strips and glued them to a file folder. I can now see which questions we really need to go back and review. I can also very easily see which students are struggling most with geometry.

Here is the final product.

WHAT WORKED
I loved the fact that I could easily collect the data I needed to tell that they were not completely ready for the assessment. I also loved that it required very little effort from me because there is definitely a limited amount of time to get everything done.

Students were also very honest when filling out their chart. We had a discussion about that it was important to be honest so that when I looked at the data I knew exactly who needed help, so being honest would benefit them.

WHAT I WILL CHANGE
Next time I will make sure that all students are only writing in the appropriate spaces. (One of my scholars decided to write her initials in the space when she got the question correct. I didn't see it until we were almost done.) I will also make the spaces shorter. There were 3 students absent so they all fit. Next time I use it I will change the size so that all strips will fit. It would have also been better if students had done a better job at coloring in the boxes. I think I will require all students to us a crayon or marker next time.

I plan to use this idea again. Students were able to see their data immediately which I love.

I hope this is an idea that you can try in your classroom. Stop by Fourth Grade Flipper to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms.

Five for Friday

Only 4 more days before spring break. (Well actually there are five but next Friday is a teacher workday so I'm not counting that.) To wrap up this week, I'm linking up with Doodlebug Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.

1. Geometry
We finally finished our fraction unit last Friday with a monsterous post assessment. My scholars did better than I expected, but we still have a lot of work to do with fractions. Why are fractions so hard to understand? Anyway, we had to move on and geometry was our next unit. Geometry is one of my favorite math disciplines. I loved geometry when I was in school. I think I am one of a limited number of people to actually love doing geometry proofs. We started by learning what polygons were and reviewing the names and number of sides of the different polygons. Then I had my scholars draw a picture using only polygons. That means no circles, no crossing lines, and no lines not a part of a shape. They struggled a bit, but most of the pictures turned out amazing. After drawing, I had them write a narrative about their image. (I forgot to take pictures, so I will have to add the pictures later.)

2. Skeeball
I've been playing in a skeeball league for about 5 years. Usually when I tell people this, they react in the same way. First they ask, "What is that?" I explain what it is and then they say, "They have a league for that?" Yes, there is a skeeball league. There are actually numerous leagues popping up throughout the country. The Charlotte Skeeball League is under the Skeenation.com umbrella. I love the competition and after a few seasons of playing awfully, I became pretty good. A few years ago, I was the first female to win the high rollers tournament.
Well I tell all of this because we had a free skee event on Wednesday for the first night of registration for the upcoming season. At these events we always do a luck of the draw two on two tourney. I was lucky and was paired with the best player in the league and we won the tournament. I love winning. It's always nice to take a break in the middle of the week and have a good time with some great friends.

3. Field Trip
Fifth grade went on a field trip on Thursday to the Charlotte Symphony. It was a required trip for all fifth graders in the district. There was a focus on the arts: symphony, dance, opera, visual arts. The goal was to have the kids think about their many possibilities in the arts. As they head to middle school, they will have the opportunity to choose their electives so the program included interviews of middle school students who were involved in the various arts in middle school. The kids really enjoyed the field trip.

4. Innocence
While riding on the bus to the field trip we passed a bar with a sign that said Draft Beer. One of my students said, "Ooh, look. Can we go there. They sale root beer." He was so excited about getting root beer and no clue about what the sign really meant. It's always nice to see that some kids are still kids and aren't as exposed to the outside world. His innocence was radiating from him. I love moments like that.

5. Innovation Institute
About a month ago, I received an email from our Deputy Superintendent inviting me to the Innovation Institute. The email described the institute as a way to explore oneself. I was instantly interested, but upon further reading, it said that I would be missing 4 and a half days in order to attend. I hate missing days and missing 4 days prior to end of grade testing, was unthinkable. Therefore I was torn. After talking to my principal and her encouragement to attend, I signed up. Today was the first day of the institute. And I am so happy that I chose to attend. As teachers, we are always being pulled in so many directions, so it was nice to slow down for a day and be able to reflect on myself and explore my creative self, which I don't do very often.

These are some of the paintings from today. I won't use this forum to explain what they mean in great detail, but all if these paintings reveal something about who I am and where I want to be at this moment in my life.









I can't wait until part 2 in a few weeks


Well, that was my week. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Baby shower and friends birthday party on Saturday and reconnecting with a friend on Sunday.

Writing in Math

How do you integrate writing throughout the curriculum?

I try to have my scholars do some type of writing during each subject each day.

One way I do this in math is by requiring my students to complete a math journal each day. For the math journal students are required to copy the problem of the day off the board, solve the problem, and provide a written explanation explaining how they solved the problem and why they solved it that way. We have been studying fractions for the past three months. (About half of the fifth grade End of Grade test will be fractions so it was definitely necessary to spend so much time with it.)

For the last few weeks we have only focused on solving fraction word problems. After spending a lot of time looking at different types of word problems, I wanted my scholars to create their own story problems and then model how to solve it. Of course, the final step was to write an explanation.

My students love creating posters that they know will be displayed in the hall.

Here are a few of their work products.

I think they did a pretty good job with their posters.

I also love these type of activities because I can assess my students in more than one subject. With this activity, I was able to test their understanding of a math concept as well as assess where they are in writing. There are definitely some writing skills that we need to review.

How do integrate writing throughout the curriculum?

Slavery Tear Ups

Last summer, I attended a workshop presented by Margarita Calderon. The focus of the workshop was teaching English Language Learners. During the workshop we did an activity called Tear Up. The focus of the activity is writing. Students are asked to create an image using construction paper, however they can only tear the paper. (No scissors allowed.). After the image is created, they must then write a story about the image. The image serves as the brainstorming and helps them gather their thoughts. I posted about this workshop here.

My scholars have been learning about slavery in social studies. They learned about how Africans were traded to Europeans for guns, shipped across the Atlantic on slave ships, sold and bought at slave auctions, and forced to work against their will. As a wrap up for the unit, I decided to introduce the tear up activity. (I have a pretty creative bunch of students this year so I knew they would come up with great images.)

I placed them into random groups. Their instructions were to create a tear up image based on something they learned during the slavery unit. After the images I instructed them to take the perspective of the slaves in their picture and write a story from their point of view. This is what they came up with.

Slaves taken from slave ships to slave auction

Slaves chained together on slave ship

Slaves working on plantation

Africans being traded for guns

Slave auction

I love how each group naturally came up with a different scene. And their images turned out great. I will definitely be using the tear up activity again.

Discovery Education

Have you ever heard of or used Discovery Education? 

I am very fortunate that my district has purchased the rights for all teachers and students to have access to this amazing site. 

On the surface Discovery Education appears to be a streaming site where one can stream videos for viewing.  At least this is what I believed for several years, however, I was completely wrong.  I have learned over the past year or so that Discovery ed has so much more to offer than just videos. 

There are images, ebooks, reading passages, interactive activities, virtual science labs, songs, audio clips, a world atlas, encyclopedia pages, and so much more.  I really can't name them all. 

One of my favorite aspects of Discovery ed is the portion dedicated specifically to elementary science.  In this section, all of the science materials are sorted by category: life science, earth science, and physical science.  I love the glossary aspect of this section.  For each science term, there is an animation, definition, short video clip, and image.  These really help students gain a firm understanding of the vocabulary words. 

I also really enjoy the activity builder portion of the site.  This portion allows the teacher to assign specific activities for students to complete.  Each student in my district also has a log in to Discovery Ed so once an assignment has been assigned by the teacher, it will appear on their student page.  For example, my scholars are currently doing research projects.  If I come across a video clip that might be beneficial for one of my students, I could assign that video to her to watch.  I could also assign activities to the whole class. 

What I like most about Discovery Education is that by using it I can take my students anywhere without leaving the classroom.  Many of my students have a very limited view of the world outside of their neighborhood, so teachers at my school have to help them make a lot of connections and provide them with experiences that they don't get with their families.  Discovery ed is a resource that allows me to provide them with the visuals that can help them make connections to what they are reading or what we are learning in science or social studies.  I am extremely grateful for this amazing site because of this.

This site has been a life saver for me at times and I always refer to it when I am creating my lesson plans to see if there are any materials that would fit what I'm teaching.  I can almost always find something that matches. 

I would like to add that I was not asked to do any kind of review for Discovery Education.  Last Friday, I went to a professional development on challenge based learning that was hosted by Discovery Ed.  (I will post about challenge based learning at a later date.).

After the training, I started to think about the various resources that I am fortunate to have access to. Discovery education is a site that I'm not sure that I could do without.

What are some resources that you could not do without?

Data Wall

I can't believe that it is already the middle of February.  Where has the school year gone? 

I also can't believe that I haven't written a blog since November, but I'm finally back.  A lot has happened over the last few months in both my professional life as well as my personal life that has kept me extremely busy, but I am finally able to find some time to blog.  I have definitely missed it.

Well, now on to my post...

At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to have a place in my classroom to show our classroom data.  All year this area has remained blank because I couldn't figure out exactly how to display it.
In December, my assistant principal completed my first evaluation and she told me that I needed to find a way to track data based on subgroups to see which groups are showing growth and which were not.  The easiest subgroups to begin tracking would be by gender; boys and girls.

Last school year, one of my colleagues, who is now the literacy facilitator for my school, had a data wall so I had a conversation with her.  She explained how she used her data wall and I decided to follow her lead.

This is how it works.  I created cards with each of my scholars names on them for each of our core subjects; reading, math, science, and social studies.  After they take a quiz or test, I pass out the cards and their graded assessment.  (We are currently working on fractions, so I have been recording their grades as a fraction and having them use a calculator to calculate their own percentage.) They record their percentage on the top of theory paper.  If they have a passing grade, 70 or higher, they place their name card face up.  If they have a failing grade, they place their card name down.

As a class we then calculate three percentages; whole class, girls, and boys. 
We then have a classroom discussion about the data.  After the third set of data collection, my students saw a trend that the girls always scored higher than the boys.  This led to a discussion about why this was a trend.  I love the fact that my students are analyzing their data. This is definitely requiring them to reflect on their work. I love it!!
Since I started using this data wall, I have noticed that my students have put more effort in their work, especially the boys, who desperately want to beat the girls, which hasn't happened yet.

I also like this idea because it will be a great addition to my data binder and it doesn't require me to do a whole lot of extra work.

I plan to continue to track data this way for the rest of the school year and look forward to using it starting at the beginning of the year next school year.

Here are some pictures of the current status of the data wall.  The boys and girls have different color cards so that it is easy for us to distinguish between them.

Here are the charts with my scholars' names. If the name is facing up, then the scholar passed the assessment. Girls are represented with either yellow or purple cards and boys have blue cards.

Here are the graphs of our data. Green=whole class, red=girls, blue=boys.

Viewing a Story from Multiple Perspectives

I can't believe that I haven't blogged in almost 3 weeks. But the month of October is always super hectic. Things haven't really slowed down, but I wanted to share something that my students have been doing in class.

Let me start by saying that I'm not usually into creating profits that require a lot cutting and glueing. I kinda feel as if they aren't necessary and take way to much time for the students to complete the work. However, this year I set a few goals and one of them was to allow my students more opportunities to be creative. I have done a pretty good hub with this so far, but I am right about the time it takes to complete products such as this.

Anyway, the Common Core emphasizes how important it is to use the same text for multiple reasons to help children build a deeper understanding of the text. So, we read the story Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters for the third time this school year. Here is what we did when we read it the first time.

Well, we have been learning about author's point of view. After learning the difference between first and third person points of view, we then went into a discussion about how changing the narrator would change the story. This required my scholars to really do some deep thinking. I'm sure many of them had never thought about anything similar to this.

After I reread Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, I had them think about how the story would differ if it was told from the point of view of one of the 4 main characters: Mufaro, Manyara, Nyasha, or Nyoka. After a quick think, pair, share, I gave them the assignment.

Select two of the characters and retell the story from both characters' point of view, paying close attention to how the two stories would be different.

Then came the artsy part. We created hand lenses so it looked like the reader was viewing the two stories through them. Here is the final product.

Even though it took many of them several days to complete, it was a valuable activity for my class.


I knew that I would be hanging this product out in the hall, which means it had to be edited. (At my school, all work displayed in the hall must be edited and represent the students' best work.) This meant that I had to edit all of them, which took me forever. Here is a list of common errors that my scholars made:

- Using capital letters in the middle of sentences
- Beginning sentences with lowercase letters
- Using a lowercase I when writing the word
- Subject/verb agreement
- Lack of periods

How do you teach conventions in your classroom? How do you hold your students accountable for using proper conventions?

Caught in a Web of Good Books

I hate changing bulletin boards!! In my opinion it is the worst part of teaching. At my school, we have to change our hallway bulletin boards by the last day of the month, so I have been thinking about what I could put on mine all week. I didn't really have any products planned for this week that would look good on the board so I had no idea of what I would do.

Well, that was until last night. I was scrolling through the pins on pinterest and saw a picture of a bulletin board with a spider web and spiders that read, "Tangled up in the webs of books!" (I didn't pin it so I don't have the website to link to it.) This board was for a school library. I liked the concept, but I still had to think of some kind of work that I could put on the board.

When I walked into my room today, I saw my wall that read, "Book Recommendations". (I haven't had the chance to start using this board yet.) But when I saw it I came up with an idea. Earlier this school year, someone created a post that showed pictures of their students peering over the cover of a book. They had created a book jacket of their favorite books. (Once again, I don't have the link to share.) I knew that I could combine the two ideas.

So during writing today, I had my students write a brief summary/description of a book that they have read this year; similar to what you would find on the back of a book. They also added a statement explaining why they would recommend this book. After they finished writing, I did a quick edit. I don't usually do that, but unfortunately there isn't enough time for them to peer edit. Tomorrow they complete the book jacket.

Here is the example that I made.

Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac is one of my favorite books. I use it for a read aloud every October. I will be starting next week. My students always love it and usually talk about it for the rest of the year.

Here is the bulletin board with just my book on it. Work in progress.

I did one so I can show my students an example. I will be adding the student products tomorrow as they finish them. I will take mine off the board in the morning.

Here is a close up of the title of the board.

We are required to include the Common Core State Standard on anything we place in the hallway. Here are the ones that connect to this activity.

Here is the final board from 2 different views.

Here are a few close ups of the student work.

My scholars loved this activity. I think I will make it a work on writing choice.


How do you feel about bulletin boards? How often are you required to change yours? What is currently on your bulletin board?

Voki

Have you ever used a Voki? I love them. This amazing web tool is basically an online avatar that can be used in various ways in the classroom. I first learned about Voki a few years ago, but I haven't used it very often. One of my goals this year is to use more technology in the classroom and provide more opportunities for my students to use it as well. I figured Voki was a good place to start.

I know my students many of my students have used Voki in the past, but some haven't so I think this will be a great way to get them used to using a web tool.

Here is my plan: I have found that my students are struggling with following oral instructions which is crucial if they are going to be successful this school year, so instead of writing their morning insructions on the board in the morning, I will write a message telling them to play the Voki when they come in. They can push play on the Smartboard as many times as necessary. And I won't have to give the instructions.

Here is the Voki I created for tomorrow.

Later in the day, I will show students how to create a Voki. It is super simple! Kids love the fact that they can create their own characters. Luckily, my class goes to computer lab on Fridays, so when they go to the lab they will create their own Voki giving directions for the class to do something. Next week, we will play their Vokis periodically and see if the class can follow the directions perfectly on the first try. I think we will keep track and I will award points toward a class reward. This activity will kill two birds with one stone. We will practice following directions and they will get experience with using Vokis. I think my students will love it!! Check out voki.com for more information.

Inner Conversations

Last week, our reading strategy was following your inner conversation by leaving tracks. We discussed the importance of thinking about their reading and then writing those thoughts down (leaving tracks). Leaving tracks during reading was compared to animals leaving tracks in the snow. Even though the animal may be gone, you can tell what animal was there by looking at the tracks. In reading, we write notes to track our thinking and after we are finished we can remember what we read by reading the notes. Therefore, we "leave tracks" of our thinking.

Throughout the week, we did read alouds, partner reading, and independent reading where the students practiced leaving tracks. On Friday, we did a culminating activity. I read the book Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe. While I read, they left tracks of their thinking in their reading notebooks. After we finished, my scholars discussed the book in small groups. To work on conversational skills we use sentence starters. Our sentence starters for the week were I think, I believe, In my opinion, I wonder, I agree because, and I disagree because. (I love hearing children using these sentence starters.) After the discussions, my scholars created thought bubbles with their thoughts about the book. These were the track they wrote while I was reading the book. They then drew a self portrait and created a poster with the thought bubble coming from their self portrait. They turned out great!

Here are pictures of some of them.

Substitutes

How do you feel about missing a day of school and needing a substitute? Well I hate it!! It takes way too much time to plan and usually it all doesn't get completed. I always feel as though a day with a sub is a wasted day for my scholars.

Well, I am sad to say that today was my first day out of school this year. That's right I needed a sub on the 8th day of school.

No, I'm not sick. In fact unless I was on my death bed, I would have been at school. I would be much more productive at 50% than most subs are at their best. (I know that there are some really good subs out there. I just haven't encountered many of them.)

Anyway, I had to go to day 1 of a workshop today and day 2 is next Tuesday, the 11th day of school. I was chosen to be a Professional Development Master Teacher, PDMT, in my district and this workshop was required for all new PDMTs were required to attend. Although I really did not want to go, the workshop turned out to be really beneficial. The name of the workshop was Supportive Interactions. It was focused on helping us be better coaches for other teachers. I really think it was time well spent.

I am just hoping that my students had a good day. With it being so early in the year and all procedures not completely set yet, I'm concerned about how they did. I guess I will see tomorrow.

UPDATE:
I hate returning to school after a sub. There are so many unknowns. Did the kids have a productive day? Did the behave? Was the sub attentive and helpful to the students? Was my room left a mess? So obviously I was hesitant to return to my room. I was happy to learn that yesterday wasn't a complete waste of time. My students got most of there work done and the sub seemed to be very helpful to them. She left me a great note about the day, which I always appreciate. My students were very talkative, but there were no major behavior problems. Even though I hate missing, I am thankful that they had a pretty good day.

Daily Five Day 5

And then there were 21. In my posts last week I mentioned that I only had 14 students. This was due to students not showing up the first few days of school. Well this was true on Thursday morning, but by lunch on Thursday I had 17, by lunch on Friday I had 18, and by 9:30 today I had 21. Yep that's right 7 new students in the last three days of school. They started school late for various reasons; 1 had her tonsils taken out, 2 moved within the city and changed schools, 1 was stranded in New York, 1 was with her father up north for the summer, 1 moved from out of state, and I'm not sure about the other 2. I was lucky in the fact that none of them will be major behavior problems. My struggle at this point is that we have completely delved into the curriculum and I am struggling to catch all of these students up with the pretests we completed last week. I guess that will get finished as the week progresses.

Anyway, I am enjoying my students thus far. I have a good mix, and I think it will be a great school year.

I have one question!! How have I not heard of daily 5 before now? Implementing the Daily 5 structure is really going to make me a better teacher. I will have so much time to meet with students individually and in small groups and my scholars will be so independent. We have built stamina for read to self up to 10 minutes and work on writing to 5 minutes. My scholars are staying focused during mini lessons because they know it will only last about 10 minutes and then they will be able to work on their own. I am seeing how this will make it so much easier to differentiate instruction, which is my focus this school year. I can't believe it has taken me so long to hear about Daily 5, but I know that after the last 5 days I will be using this structure for the rest of my teaching career. My scholars are eager to continue to build stamina. I have never had a class so eager to do silent sustained reading. I look forward to seeing how this eagerness continues to develop over the next few weeks.

Are you using Daily 5 in your classroom? How is the process of building stamina going for you?

Book Shopping

I love Daily 5!! Today was my second day introducing D5 and it went amazingly well today too. My scholars have built their stamina to seven minutes and are begging for more reading time. I'm loving it. Tomorrow I will introduce the cafe lesson tune into interesting words and my scholars will be able to pick their own spot to read to self. I am extremely excited to see how that goes.

I also taught my scholars how to use ourclassroom library. We discussed the various sections, the importance of keeping it neat and organized, how to check out and return books, and our one weekly shopping day. After this discussion, my scholars were super excited to "shop" for books. Even my most challenging students were eager to pick out books to fill their baskets. Check out the picture of the full book baskets.

You can also see the check out cards in that picture. As they shop for books, scholars will write the book title and bin/shelf number where they got the book from. This will make returning book easier because they wrote down exactly where each book belongs. Here is a better pic.

(Please ignore the handwriting.)

I wish I had remembered to take pictures of my scholars actually shopping for books, but I forgot. I hope this excitement about books and reading lasts all year!!

How do you have students check out books from the classroom library?