George Lucas Educational Foundation

Getting Books Into Every Student’s Hands

At this school, nurturing a love of reading begins with book shopping, a practice where students choose books from their classroom libraries to bring home—every week.

August 3, 2023

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At P.S. 249, the Caton School, in Brooklyn, New York, every student from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade has the opportunity to go “book shopping” each week. Principal Elisa Brown has prioritized Title I funding to ensure that each classroom has its own library filled with thousands of chapter and picture books for students to choose from, both fiction and nonfiction. Teachers pair students at similar reading levels to browse the collection together and help hold each other accountable, then give them a time slot during the school day to select anywhere from four to 10 books. The classroom libraries are continually updated based on student interest, and books are often connected to what they are learning in class. And the best part? Students get to bring their books home on loan each week, in a special book baggie designed to track and protect the books, which encourages a love of reading, allows them to share their interests with their families, and strengthens reading skills at home and at school.

Schools That Work

P.S. 249 The Caton School

Public, Urban

Grades PK-5

Brooklyn, NY

At P.S. 249 in Brooklyn, New York, about half of the student body are from Spanish-speaking countries—but what might be considered a language challenge for some has been turned into an opportunity here. The school’s dual-language Spanish program starts in kindergarten. Nearly every teacher is trained to teach English as a second language, and consistent with best practices in ELL, standards remain high despite understandable gaps in language comprehension. Through a robust math curriculum, engaging science days, and a new way of doing professional development that frames classrooms as teaching labs, the neighborhood school not only brings out the best in kids—it has become a high performer over the past decade.

Earned an America’s Best School Award from the National Center for Urban School Transformation in 2023.
Received a Blue Ribbon Award for Exemplary Performance from the U.S. Department of Education in 2021.
Named a Reward School for 2 years in a row (2018–19) for high academic achievement—with no significant gaps between subgroups—by the New York Department of Education.