Content Specific Classroom Libraries in a Middle School Setting

In September of 2008 Scholastic Book Company donated content specific classroom libraries to one core team of sixth grade classrooms at Wentzville Middle School in the Wentzville School District. This was the first time that Scholastic had been involved in the concept of "team" libraries. The classrooms involved consisted of mathematics, science, social studies and communication arts. Content specific classroom libraries are made up of trade books that are used to supplement the textbook and other classroom materials.;The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of those classroom libraries on students' achievement in literacy and their perceptions of reading. In particular an analysis was conducted on the literacy impact of content specific classroom libraries on sixth grade students, focusing on Missouri's Achievement Program (MAP) in communication arts, students' Lexile levels and students' individual perception of reading.;The results of the data comparisons showed significant positive gains in the experimental group in adolescent literacy. The students demonstrated higher levels of achievement in one school year than their counterparts in reading comprehension and state communication arts assessment. Students participating in the content specific classroom libraries indicated similar perceptions of reading as the students who did not participate in content specific classroom libraries.