Ethnographic Study of Third-Grade Students in San Antonio, Texas
Ethnographic Study of
Third-Grade Students in San Antonio, Texas
Confidentiality, Privacy, and Bias Statement
The researcher identified and collected all data through
passive observation and casual discussion with third-grade students at one San Antonio,
Texas elementary school which will henceforth be referred to as "The
School" and its library will be referred to as “The Library”. It is
important to note that the researcher works for The School as the Library
Assistant and is privy to the quantitative data in this project. With great respect
for student confidentiality and privacy, the researcher has opted to abstain
from identifying the school, school district, teacher and staff names, and
student names. Additionally, when discussing the public library branch
with the greatest proximity to the school and used for further research will be
referred to by the abbreviation for San Antonio Public Library, SAPL, followed
by "branch": SAPL Branch. These decisions were made with the utmost
care to protect the district, staff, students, and the researcher from any
backlash on privacy concerns.
Numbers
San Antonio, Texas is located in Bexar County and boasts an
estimated populace of 1,495,295 and 2,087,679 respectively (United States
Census Bureau, 2023). With this large population, San Antonio and the
surrounding cities are served by 40 school districts including charter and
private schools, and technical academies (HAR.com, n.d.; Niche, 2025). Additionally,
San Antonio hosts the San Antonio Public Library system, which provides access
to 31 branch locations to Bexar County residents. The elementary school in
question is located within the greater San Antonio area with a current
enrollment of 430 students, 49 enrollees make up the third-grade class or 11.4%
of the school population (B. Q., personal communication, March 25, 2025).
Third Grade
The third-grade class at The School is composed of 49 eight
to nine-year-olds. The grade level is split into three classes, with an average
of 16 students per class. These students are an energetic group that enjoys
reading, visiting the library, and seeking recommendations from their classmates,
the Librarian, and the Library Assistant. This eclectic population is made of several
differently-abled children, with different socioeconomic backgrounds, varying reading
and academic strengths, and a multitude of personalities.
The Library
The Library is run by Mrs. R, who has been the librarian at The School for 19 years, and a librarian for 26 (D. R. personal communication, April 4, 2025). She has striven to ensure that The Library is not only welcoming and
inviting, but an accessible resource for The School’s students to utilize and look
forward to visiting. It is helpful to note that the picture book section is
designated as the “everybody book” section, and will be referred to as such, to
help reduce stigma for the students who need easier reading material. The
“reader” section contains the My First I Can Read, I Can Read, Katie Woo,
Elephant and Book, Get Ready Get Set, etc., books. There are beginning
chapter books, such as Junie B. Jones, Lauren Tarshis’ I Survived,
or the fan-favorite Pug and Owl/Unicorn Diaries books, and novels
such as those from the Percy Jackson or Spy School series. The Library
also contains a large non-fiction section that sees daily circulation from
every student in grades second through fifth. To maintain an organized
collection and cohesive experience at The School, the librarian has the
following rules and procedures in place for all students to help with The
Library flow:
- All
students must choose their “just right” book first.
- “Just
right” books are any book within their reading level; for some third-grade
students, this can be a novel, a beginning chapter, and for some
students, their just right books come from the reader section.
- Kindergarten
students select their just right from the everybody book section and are
only permitted to select the books that are turned outward for display;
this helps streamline their decision process and shortens their decision-making
time.
- Third,
fourth, and fifth-grade students are allowed three books at once, first
and second check out two. Kindergarten checks out one book for
approximately two and a half quarters until the librarian determines they
are ready to be responsible for a “homework book”, or a pre-level 1 or
level 1 reader. The preK students do not check out until the end of
February, and only then are they allowed to select off of a special cart
that contains board books and well-loved picture book copies, they are
also not permitted to take their books home the way the K-5th grade
students are.
- Students
are only permitted the following one at a time as they are high circulation/popular
materials:
- graphic
novels, DVDs, Playaways for fourth and fifth-grade only, Where’s
Waldo and other seek-and-find books, any book within a series meaning
they can only get one Owl Diaries book at a time for example.
- The
primary reason for this rule is that the librarian wants to ensure that
every student has a chance to check one of these highly sought items out
at a time
Videos 1 - 3 and Figures 1 & 2 show evidence of The School’s library layout and organization.
Video 1 - Everybody Book (picture book) section
The Library Observations
The Library
The Library utilizes numerous visual cues to aid in the
search process. There are sticker arrows and stop signs to direct and create
areas for younger students to wait their turn. The readers and chapter book
sections have orange and yellow labels to notate series or publication; orange
can only be seen in the chapter book section and indicates the beginning
chapter books. Seek-and-find books sport a large Where’s Waldo poster
and arrows pointing students to the popular section. There are five special
collection shelves where materials are shelved separately for easy
identification: the 2024-2025 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee books as
determined by the Texas Library Association, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Who Would
Win and Animal Battles, the “story collection”, and the non-fiction
materials relating to Harry Potter. All of these are specially shelved around
the approximate location of their typical shelf area either by Dewey Decimal or
alphabetically. Additionally, series books with multiple authors such as 39
Clues or Infinity Ring are shelved separately from the fiction
collection to keep these series together.
During the research process for this study, The Library has
adjusted shelving for the readers and beginning chapter books to make them more
easily identifiable for students who are not strong readers. The readers and
beginning chapter books, such as Princess in Black or Heidi and Henry
Heckelbeck, remain on the same shelves but are now contained within labeled
baskets; the readers have always been organized by publisher/collection, but
are now further organized by common characters such as the beloved Biscuit
by Alyssa Satin Capucilli.
While the above behaviors are not that of the study subjects,
these choices made by the Librarian directly impact their search behaviors.
Third-grade behaviors
Popular materials are easily determined based on passive
observation of third-graders during their visits to The Library. These students
make a beeline for Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Where’s Waldo, Who Would Win
and Animal Battles, and the graphic novels section, specifically for
Bad Guys, Dog Man, and Dragon Kingdom of Wrenly. It has been
noted that throughout March, Lauren Tarshis’ I Survived series has seen
increased circulation; it cannot be determined why this pattern has
emerged other than the new Library Assistant having directed a few students in
that direction. Other high-circulation materials are: Pug and Owl/Unicorn
Diaries, Wings of Fire, Dragon Masters, and The Puppy Place.
In addition to the once-a-week check-out times designated for
each third-grade class, the Librarian will guide lessons as requested by their
teachers; the third-grade classes will soon be meeting with the Librarian for a
lesson on point of view before STAAR testing in April (personal communication,
April 1, 2025). Although lessons for the whole of third grade are infrequent, there
is a group of around 10 third-graders that meets with the Librarian for Reading
Enrichment once a week. These students are considered strong readers and
capable academically but are not in the Gifted and Talented [GT] program.
Third-grade Enrichment meets for approximately 30-45 minutes under the
direction of the librarian to enrich their reading comprehension and literacy
skills. They analyze several sources including poetry, and news articles
through the district’s website access.
I was able to briefly ask the third-grade class, en masse, about their library and reading habits and was able to determine the following:
- Approximately half of the third-grade students visit the public library, specifically the SAPL Branch primarily due to its proximity to The School.
- Very few third-grade students dislike reading, less than 1%
- The Bluebonnet nominee books were popular, and the Library Assistant noted that Odder, Yuck You Suck! Poems about Animals That SIP, SLURP, SUCK, New Dragon City, Two Tribes, A Rover’s Story, and Legends of Lotus Island saw the most circulation between January and March 2025 (Texas Library Association, 2024). (See collection display in Figure 3)
- Most of the third-grade class admits to reading during the summer but it was difficult to ascertain an accurate approximation.
Further questioning on students’ individual favorites aligns
with the observed behaviors. Table 1 contains a graphic display of the data on
student favorites.
The SAPL Branch
The SAPL Branch is the only San Antonio Public Library
branch within five miles of The School. It is important to note that there are
three additional branches within a 10-mile radius of The School, however,
anything over 5 miles in San Antonio can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes
depending on direction and traffic. This branch is the home library for many
School students due to its proximity to the campus and their homes.
The SAPL Branch Observations
This researcher was not impressed. The adult, teen, and
“children’s” areas are marked clearly with painted signage; however, the
children’s section marked in the SAPL Branch sits solely above the
picture/board book and reader section. The section for the researched
demographic was not shelved beneath the "children's" sign. The teen
area is brightly lit with hand-crafted art adhered to the pillars, the readers,
picture books, and board book section is sparsely decorated, but sports soft,
low chairs and toys. The children's section for the researched demographic had
no decor but sported a few outdated posters that hung well above the intended
target’s eye level. The shelves were relatively bare and were not well marked,
one student agreed that “there are not many books (personal communication,
March 17, 2025)” at the SAPL Branch. Also of import, there were no identifiable
signs or posters highlighting children’s programs within or around the branch;
this aligns with the observations made on the San Antonio Public Library's Events
page.
The website is not visually appealing, but Events & News is marked clearly; despite this, the calendar page does not allow for easy field narrowing, effectively irradicating any user-friendly potential. Users have to follow a few additional links to access the Events Calendar. Figure 4 (San Antonio Public Library, 2025) shows the events initially thought pertinent for this age demographic. Further examination determined that these programs were for younger children and occurred during school operation hours, therefore, the third-grade students at the school in question could not participate in all but three programs.
Figure 4
Changes to The Libraries
The Librarian at The School strives to make the library an
appealing and easily accessible place for all ages. As previously stated, The
Library has already undergone a large-scale change in displaying of the early
reader collection. During the course of this study, the researcher could not
identify changes that could be implemented, further study and immersion would
be needed.
In addition to creating more programs for school-age children
who aren’t homeschooled, the SAPL Branch needs to showcase what they provide,
online and in person. Utilizing previous experience, the researcher believes
that a simple bookmark-style list of events and programs that includes date,
time, target age, and a brief description can be a beneficial tool to advertise
to and bring in students.
Conclusion
The above research was collected by the researcher carefully and ethically. Privacy concerns were heavily weighed and it was ultimately decided to forgo one-on-one interviews. In doing this, the researcher believes that a bigger picture of third-grade library behaviors was collected and feels that the third-graders enjoyed participating in the brief questionnaire. In addition to looking into The School, the researcher sought information from the SAPL Branch. This allowed for observation of how this branch reaches its young population, or doesn’t as it was determined, and how the third-graders viewed this location. Overall, it was determined that The School’s third-grade class is a group of voracious readers and they value the time spent in the library both at school and in the city.
Final Thoughts
The third-grade class at The School is an energetic bunch
that enjoys visiting their school library. They are the most efficient group of
students and are the only grade level the Library Assistant sees have more than
10 minutes of silent reading after check-out. What the researcher finds most
baffling, despite knowing that literacy rates are dropping based on previous
research and experience, is the number of students whose just-right book is not
a chapter book. Several students in each third-grade class collect books from
the reader section as their just-right books. While there is nothing wrong with
different reading levels, the researcher considers this a somber thought and
wonders how younger students' teachers plan to build literacy skills and not
fall behind. Students won’t enjoy the library if they can’t use it, and they
won’t visit if there is nothing to access or use. It goes beyond circulation
materials being readily available; libraries have to be a fun and inviting
place that does more for their patrons than offer books.
References
HAR.com. (n.d.). School districts
in Bexar County. https://www.har.com/school/list/county/BEXAR-COUNTY
Hitt, W. (2019). The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas [Photograph]. Photos.com by Getty Images. https://photos.com/featured/the-alamo-san-antonio-texas-wesley-hitt.html
Niche. (2025). 2025 Best school
districts in the San Antonio area. https://www.niche.com/k12/search/best-school-districts/m/san-antonio-metro-area/?msockid=1563c99f4a476c1f0e12db6d4b106dfa
San Antonio Public Library. (2025). Events
calendar. Events & News. https://www.mysapl.org/Events-News/Events-Calendar/id/cod
Texas Library Association. (2024). Texas
Bluebonnet Award Master List 2024-2025. https://txla.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Texas-Bluebonnet-Award-2024-2025-Master-List.pdf
United States Census Bureau. (2023). QuickFacts:
Bexar County, Texas; San Antonio city, Texas. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/bexarcountytexas,sanantoniocitytexas/PST045223#PST045223
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