While school libraries have to cater to large populations with varying needs, a classroom library can and should be tailor-made to support its specific students, curriculum, and instructional reading goals.
Classroom Libraries for Grades PreK–12
Every Classroom Is Unique. Every Classroom Library Should Be Too.
Build for All Types of Reading and All Kinds of Readers
A classroom library is not just a space for reading. It’s a key component of a classroom’s instructional strategy. Effective classroom libraries drive greater engagement with reading, deeper comprehension of curriculum-aligned topics, and propel higher levels of reading achievement.
A well-designed classroom library will:
Align with the Curriculum
to help students build deeper knowledge through a wide range of text types on the topics being taught.
Level Up and Down
two to three grades, in each direction, to support all readers through more accessible and more challenging texts
Reflect Your Students
to make reading more relevant, meaningful, and enjoyable
Be Codesigned
to ensure books are read and read a lot. Asking students what they want to read builds both trust and reading buy-in.
Be Robust
and include multiple genres, a variety of text types, and formats to strengthen all your reading instruction practices.
Students in classrooms with libraries read 50–60% more than students who do not have the same access to books.
Allington, Richard L; Cunningham, Patricia M. Schools That Work: Where All Children Read and Write, Third Edition (2007)
The Most Trusted Name in Classroom Libraries
Educators in every state turn to us for their classroom libraries. We specialize in building solutions to meet your unique literacy goals.
Who We Are
Former and current educators, editors, and publishing professionals who all share a passion for literacy, learning, and supporting educators.
What We Do
Build and refresh classroom library collections. Partner with educators to identify gaps and needs and co-design solutions to align with your goals.
How We Do It
We first review thousands of books from multiple publishers for the best new titles. We then review data from our internal partners at Scholastic Book Fairs and Clubs to identify titles that have captured students’ hearts and minds.
10 Characteristics of Effective Classroom Libraries
Classroom libraries are an important component of elementary classrooms. These collections support readers’ literate identities, their motivation to read, and their access to texts that reflect a world outside of the classroom.
Henderson et al., 2020
Thought Leaders
Pam Allyn
Literacy Expert, Author, and Founder/President at Dewey
Byron V. Garrett
Author, Educator, and Executive Vice President at United Way Worldwide
Dr. M. Ann Levett
Educator, Administrator, and Assistant Executive Director of the School Superintendents Association (AASA)
Donalyn Miller
Literacy Expert, Educator, Author, and Founder of The Book Whisperer, Inc.
Colby Sharp
Educator and Author
Dr. Don Vu
Educator, Administrator, Author, and Director of the Sacramento County Office of Education
Classroom Libraries, Built Easy
Effective classroom libraries are voluminous, and our collections are one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to build them. We offer three categories of collections and custom options to support your individual literacy and learning goals.
Instructional Classroom Libraries
Provide a solid foundation for any ELA block with authentic, high-quality texts paired with program and title-specific instructional support.
Teacher Collections
Build and update classroom libraries with student-favorite books, teacher-approved titles, and light teacher support, such as activity sheets, resource guides, and classroom management tools.
Ready-To-Go Classroom Libraries
Grades K–8
Scholastic Text Sets
Grades K–5
Optimistic Library
Grades K–5
Grade-Level Collections
Expand classroom libraries and fill gaps with cost-effective collections featuring the best authors, series, and instructional content.
Classroom Favorites
Grades PreK–12
Best New Books
Grades PreK–12
Genre Study
Grades K–12
Custom Collections
Building collections for your specific curriculum, student interests, state standards, and teaching and learning goals is one of the things we do best. We can meet your custom collection needs—from a customized booklist to an entire classroom library, and anything in between.
Bilingual and Spanish Collections
The titles in these bilingual and Spanish collections were carefully selected to help students acquire academic and social vocabulary, content-area information, and modes of writing while building their reading stamina.
Individual Titles
Round out your libraries with individual copies of new titles, student favorites, curriculum-aligned topics, or some personal favorites your students might love, too.
All students need enormous quantities of successful reading to become independent, proficient readers.
Atwell, 2007; Worthy and Roser, 2010; Miller, 2013
Professional Learning
Districts around the nation rely on Scholastic for effective classroom libraries. To maximize the return on your classroom library investment, we pair teachers with a classroom library expert for a truly personalized PD experience.
Bring a Scholastic specialist to your site to help you:
- Curate and Organize: Learn strategies to make books accessible, inviting, and relevant to student needs.
- Enhance Daily Instruction: Integrate books seamlessly into lessons to boost comprehension and engagement.
- Cultivate a Culture of Literacy: Foster independent reading habits and a love for books.
- Support All Learners: Leverage your collection to meet the needs of all students, including multilingual learners and striving readers.
Professional Books
When it comes to classroom libraries, boxes aren’t the only things to unpack. Our professional authors have a lot to share about effective strategies for leveraging texts in (and out of) classrooms.
The Commonsense Guide to Your Classroom Library
Building a Collection That Inspires, Engages, and Challenges Readers
The Go-To Guide for Classroom Management
Quick Tips, Effective Strategies, and Use-Now Tools for Teaching Success
Research
Research informs everything that we do. We build on research-based evidence and then measure what we’ve built to ensure our solutions are effective. That way our partners have the knowledge and assurance they need when curating programs for their schools and districts.
Home Libraries Topic Paper
The Impact of Home Libraries on Academic Achievement, Economic Success, and Health
Learning Library
Access to books in the classroom remains an effective literacy strategy. See what thought leaders have to say about their steadfast value.
Ready for your classroom libraries to support your literacy goals?
