Over the years I have tried many a system for checking out classroom library books to students. Some systems were too onerous on teacher time. Some systems didn’t provide sufficient accountability so books would permanently be borrowed never to return! Some systems worked on paper but had no student buy-in. Just recently however, I think I might have stumbled on to the proverbial win-win!

To make it work you will need your class to be set-up with Google Classroom and you will need to create a Google Form. Here is what I do:

1) Link the Form on the About page of your Google Classroom (at the bottom of this post I have included a template of the Form I use, you are most welcome to make yourself a copy)

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2) At the end of reading workshop, or before packing up for the day, I ask students to make their book choices (obviously they will need access to a device from which they can access the Form on their Google accounts – we have a 1-1 iPad set up)

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3) That’s it!

Then on a weekly basis I check-in on the Google Form results to touch base and see who has been checking out books, what their titles are, etc. Simple, effective, and student centered, this is the best solution I have come up with for making sure students are able to independently check out classroom books while maintaining accountability. Any feedback on how to improve this system is always appreciated!