Literacy Resources in the Classroom

Due to technical difficulties, I don't have a picture of my chosen literacy resource from my classroom. Each of my students have a book box. It's almost like a maganize holder or file organizer and is made from cardboard. On average, each student has 5-7 books in it that they are supposed to choose from during independent reading time. I think that it is a great idea to have students select books ahead of time so that when it is time for daily independent reading time they are wasting time and being disruptive to their classmates when selecting reading material. However, I would make several adjustments to this resource in order to make it more beneficial. My students don't have a set day or time when they switch out their books; several students have had some of their books in their box for months. I think that starting each week by having students swap out their books would be a good way to keep kids interested during reading time because they would have new options. Also, I would have each student keep a book log so that I could monitor whether or not students have already read a book they've selected. Additionally, many of my students do not have books that are at their independent reading level. Some of them have chapter books that are incredibly too advanced for them, or picture books that list Spanish vocabulary. In my classroom, I would be sure to monitor students as they select books, as well as periodically check my students' book boxes to make sure that they had appropirate level books. While I think the concept of book boxes is great, my MT does not effectively incorporate this literacy resource into her classroom.