G4 Exploring a Library User's and Reader's Rights & Responsibilities

Our fourth graders have been inquiring into human rights under the transdisciplinary theme Who We Are and in connection with this during their time in the library, we have been looking into what rights and responsibilities a library user and reader has. In a first step, we brainstormed all we do as library users and readers, to then divide these into rights and responsibilities. In some cases, our students argued well that it could be considered a right as well as a responsibility, depending on how we look at it. It was wonderful seeing everyone so engaged in the conversations and hearing our fourth graders speak so confidently about what rights and responsibilities are.

In a next step, we brainstormed which skills we need to be able to take advantage of our rights and honor our responsibilities. We started putting our thoughts in Padlets - see below - and will continue working on this after the break. Further, we want to revisit the skills we identified, in particular material arrangement, search strategies to locate resources in our library as well as online, our responsibilities in sharing and using resources and information as well as lifelong reading habits. 

Various read-alouds have helped us in getting conversations started around rights and responsibilities in the library/ education context: The Librarian of Basra (Jeanette Winter), Nasreen's Secret School (Jeanette Winter) and The Book of Gold (Bob Staake). I always find that sharing a picture book related to a respective topic is one of the best ways to get everyone wondering and pondering about that topic, while nurturing at the same time an appreciation of literature and demonstrating that no one is ever too old to enjoy a picture book. 

And, last but not least, our fourth graders have made good use of their rights as library users and readers, choosing their own reading materials and enjoying sharing books and recommendations with classmates.

​I hope you found something you will enjoy reading during the break, Fourth Graders, and look forward to hearing your recommendations after the break!