Classroom Reading Corner Ideas That Improve Student Literacy — Teacher-Tested Tips

Written by B

Updated 4 years ago | 6 min read

Do you have a classroom reading corner? Maybe you call it a book nook, a classroom library or a library corner, but no matter the name, the place you set aside books for your students to select from when there is free time can play a major role in your students’ literacy.

There is evidence that teachers who set up reading corners in the classroom provide more equitable access to books, promoting reading achievement and motivation. Just having those books there will increase reading frequency, and that will snowball into greater reading achievement. If you’re looking for reading corner ideas, the teachers on the Teach Starter team are here to help!

We’ve looked at what makes a good book nook, plus pulled together tips from teachers like you on how to organise a classroom library, how to decorate your reading area and even how to find free (or low cost) books to fill it!

What Makes a Good Classroom Reading Corner?

Designing a reading corner for your students may seem as simple as grabbing a few books from your local Kmart and making them accessible to your students, but you want to be a little more thoughtful than that, right? A lot more thoughtful?

A good classroom library is built with all students in mind — from struggling learners to gifted students — and includes diverse stories and characters representing not just your students but the world. An effective reading area also promotes reading at school and at home, so creating a system for students to ‘check out’ or ‘borrow’ books is a must.

Here are some best practices to create your reading corner:

Offer a wide range of materials to appeal to and support the needs of students with different interests and abilities.
Provide access to multiple resources that reflect diverse perspectives and social identities.
Include Aussie books to ensure your students see themselves represented in the pages!

Where to Find Cheap Books for Your Classroom Reading Area

We know books can get expensive, especially when you’re trying to create a good collection that will meet all the different needs of the children in your classroom. Fortunately, the teachers on the Teach Starter team have been there. We asked them where they found inexpensive books for their classrooms, and here’s what they said!

Explore rummage sales. — Parents cleaning out their children’s old books may be your very best resource for good books for VERY little money. Speaking of …
Talk to parents you know whose kids are getting older. — If they’ve passed the grade you’re teaching years ago, they may be looking to offload some!
Join local mom Facebook groups. — Once again, parents!
Ask other teachers, especially teachers who used to teach different years. — When a teacher goes from year 1 to year 6, often they’re housing books somewhere ‘just in case’ they get moved back. But they may be willing to share some of the hidden treasure!
Check with your local library. — Are they running a book sale to raise money? Are they looking to get rid of books that aren’t being used?

Classroom Library Organisation Ideas

The methods you use for organising your students’ library are really going to come down to the number of books, the size of your space and the age range of your students. We certainly don’t expect every teacher to break out the Dewey Decimal System (although it is certainly instructive if you can!), but some of these organisation tricks may work for you:

Use alphabetical order. — Whether you’re organising by the first letter of the book title or the first letter of the author’s last name, adding the letter to the front of your book bin makes it easier for your students to know where to return books and reduces the time you have to spend cleaning up. Well … hopefully, anyway!
Organise by genre. — This is a great idea for books if you’re teaching upper years, especially as you try to hook reluctant readers on similar books to those they’ve enjoyed reading or use their own interests to suggest books. Have a student who plays netball? You might suggest they pull out books from the sports genre, for example. Don’t forget to label each book with the appropriate genre!

Colour-code your books. — Use coloured dots to help your students find the books they need. Affixed to the spine, this can be used with matching dots on your book bins. But it is also useful if you line your books up on bookshelves rather than opting for the popular book bin option.
Organise in rainbow order. — Take a page from the Home Edit, and line your books up in rainbow order. This will create a bright and beautiful classroom book nook, and it also helps your students know where to put their books when they return them.
Set up a turn-in bucket. — If you’re teaching early years students who are not yet adept at re-shelving their books, setting up a turn-in bin or bucket can be a lifesaver. This gives them a designated space to return books, while you can take care of re-shelving them in the right spot. Alternatively, you can use this option with older students, assigning the re-shelving task as one of your classroom jobs.
Use crates for shelves. — Don’t have bookshelves in your classroom? Take this hack from a member of our teacher team! Zip-tie plastic crates together to form shelving. You can also use this to create a bench for reading corner seating!
Use a CD shelf for storing your pocket novels. — It’s just the right size!

Teacher Tip: Don’t forget to label each book so your students know where they got their new favourite and remember to return it! This will help instill responsibility. Emily Roca (@emilyinelementary_ on Instagram) shared these fun classroom library labels with us, but you can make your own with our label creator!

classroom library book labels

Decorating Your Classroom Library

OK, now that we’ve got organizing your books out of the way, it’s time to talk about actually setting up and decorating that classroom book nook! We’ve put together some of our teacher team’s favourite low-cost ideas that will encourage students to grab a book, get comfy and read!

Set out comfy pillows. — There’s nothing more inviting than a comfy pillow to lean on while you page through a new graphic novel or paperback. If possible, stick with pillows that you can pop in the wash, or at least ones with washable covers because kids … right?
Add reading posters. — This ‘parts of a book’ poster is a fun one to help them get to know and understand the book better, or you can opt for something more fun like this monster-themed ‘Cure Your Curiosity With a Book”‘poster that screams ‘reading is fun.’

classroom library seating idea with inner tubes

Set up seating — Teacher Laura White (@lovegrowsteaching on Instagram) shared this brilliant idea for ‘chairs’ with us. Blow up a few inner tubes, and you’ve got instant seating for your classroom library corner!
Create a bookmark station. — Encourage your students to save their spot in their books by printing bookmarks and ensuring a steady supply. We print ours on card so they’re sturdy enough to be used again and again.
Add stuffed animals. — Give younger students a non-judgmental ‘friend’ to read to as they build fluency.
Make space for book reviews. — Give your students a sense of ownership and get them in the habit of recommending books to their mates by adding a space where they can add reviews of the books they have read to help classmates make selections.

Opening Your Reading Corner Up to Students

This is absolutely the MOST FUN part of building a classroom library — allowing your students to start using it! Here are some of our favourite ways to help your students get the most out of this awesome resource in the classroom!

book bags

Allow early finishers to choose a book for silent reading while their classmates complete a task.
Add a check-in and check-out system. You can make it easy to track which books students have borrowed from your classroom library with a system for checking books in and out. Try Classroom Checkout or BookSource for an easy system.
Open the library up for book ‘shopping’ every Monday. Teacher Taylor (@thatteachertaylor on Instagram) gives each student a small book bag (see above) with their name on it so they can safely bring books home and back to school!
Make choosing a new book into a game. One of our favourite tricks for encouraging students who are reluctant to read is to send them ‘fishing’ for book ideas!